Sounds fantastic and Welcome. You are making a graff instead of a cider by definition though. When you add the hops and malt it no longer fits into any category and thus the creation of Graff. Search the forums for more information there.
I would suggest not using your cider in the steep / boil of the wort. It will set the pectin and will make it not clear unless you use pectic enzyme. I recently made a graff (still in primary) and steeped grain for 30 minutes and then boiled for 30 minutes per Brandon O's Graff recipe. Not sure that you need to steep LME. Just a quick boil in the water to absorb it into solution cool and pitch.
It really depends on how you use the hops and malt. Depending on the malt used you may have some non-fermentable sugars and thus would limit how low of a gravity you can achieve leaving residual sweetness. Hops depending on how they are used either as a bittering hop or a flavor / aroma hop change a lot about the final product. The reason why it seems to finish "faster" is probably more due to the help of the malt and hops to cover-up and smooth out some of the strong alcohol flavor sooner.
Thanks! I had seen Brandon O's thread before, but could not find my way back to it. His graff is exactly what I was trying to reproduce, but on a little smaller scale.
Thanks for the tips - I will boil the LME, and add the cider after the wort cools. We will see how it turns out in a few weeks.
Patience is your friend. Sometimes yeast if not treated nicely can be a bit slow to get up and go. I'd wait at least 72 hours before anything and then possibly pitch a packet of Nottingham. Rehydrate it first following the directions on the back of the packet. And then let it sit in a dark room under a towel for two weeks then take hydro reading.
And the races are off! Congrats. I only once said I wished my yeast would do their thing faster. Then I came home to a blow off and junk everywhere. Now I hope they just do it at their pace.
About to start my first batch
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