Noob with a recipe for disaster

Been doing tons of reading on the forum over the last week or so, much to my wife’s amusement, and was hoping to get some feedback on the recipe outlined below recipe.

My specific question deals with the interaction of tea, brown sugar, lemon. I understand that the tea will contribute tannins for hopefully a better mouth feel and that the lemon with add back some of the tartness that might be missing from a cider brewed from store bought juice. What I don’t have an idea of is how those components will interact with really dark brown sugar.

However the recipe below turns out I have been greatly enjoying reading through all of the experience and knowledge that has been compiled on this forum. Hopefully, in about nine months when my wife gets done brewing the little bean that she is working on she will be able to enjoy my efforts. Thanks in advance.

Recipe:

3-4 bags of black tea
1 lb Muscovado brown sugar
1 lb Demarra sugar
Juice of 2 lemons

Dissolve/steep above ingredients in approx. 2 cups of water (depending on resulting syrup consistency).

Bring to room temperature (~76) and add to 3 gallons Murray’s Apple Cider until O.G. reaches 1.080.

Aerate ridiculously with wine whip/drill.

Pitch previously prepared Wyeast 4766 Smack Pack (cider yeast).

Cap and Pray!

I've had mediocre results with 4766. If you search the forum for 4766, I believe you will find that most folks come to the same conclusion. I'd recommend an ale or wheat yeast

1.080 is a little high. Once you go past 1.065 or so, you start losing the apple taste.

Personally I'd just start with good juice, but seeing how as you are in Tampa, you probably dont have much choice.

I see what you mean about the yeast.....back to LBS I go. I do have a batch of what will probably be 3 ga. of apple based funny car fuel that was pitched with Lalvin 1116. I also was playing the two 1.5L experimentals with montrachet and Safale-05 respectively. With the wyeast I was looking to play with yet another yeast. However, given your input and my resultant searches I'll be going with something else.

Unfortunately being in Tampa your are correct about not being able to get decent juice - hence the tea, lemon and brown sugar. Heck, I am not sure I can even get fresh pressed local OJ these days. Back in the day I used to be able to walk five minutes from my house and steal the best oranges from the grove near my house.

yeah, I got crap results with 1116 also. US05 is good if you bump it with some sugar. S04 and Nottingham are also good. Lots of good wheat yeasts - 3068, 3056, 1010, WLP380 & 3333 are the best IMHO, but havent really had a bad one yet (except for the dry wheat yeasts - they all came out pretty crappy).

Dunno....I have the Montrachet and safale cold crashing right now. Will probably sample those and may be cheap and repitch a starter from which ever tastes better.

CvilleKevin - Sorry didn't mean to come off as blowing you off with the "dunno". Will likely try some of the wheat yeasts you mentioned in the near future. I just need to sort through what the LBH has available in terms of yeasties. The local place is great and has really helpful people I just wish I had a list of the yeasts that they generally stock so that I could compare with recommendations from this forum.

No offense taken - you cant go wrong with US05, Nottingham or S04, and almost all LHBs will carry these. If it turns out the Montrachet works better with your juice, I'd recommend getting another packet - IMHO its worth the couple bucks to start with a fresh pack.

i used 4766 once and found it washed away all of the flavor. it was liking drinking a hollow apple. i had better results with notty.