I love lemons; I will eat them straight. So naturally, I was really excited to hear about Skeeter Pee. I really don't like it. It's acidic, sweet, and too low alcohol; I can drink a whole bottle and not feel buzzed.
Finishing up a second batch now, a 3 gallon with fresh squeezed lemon juice and zest, and will sweeten it gradually to taste this time, increased the APV to about 11 percent. It already smells a thousand times better with the fresh juice, and has all along. I don't think I'll be using store bought juice in wine anymore, seemed to make all the difference in the world. Tastes okay this time, just definitely needs SOME backsweetening.
Anyway, point of the novel here, gotta fiddle with all recipes and dial them in to your tastes
I do definitely prefer DB, but even that takes a few months to come around to where the astringency doesn't make me cringe.