Mini-batch of hard cider

I'd like to do a half batch of this... around 2.5 to 3 gallons. Does this look right?

4 cans of Apple Juice Concentrate
1 Gallon of apple juice
1 lb table or brown sugar
Wyeast Sweet Mead 4184

I really want a sweet, fruity cider with a high ABV. Also... how much sugar and of what kind should i use to carb it to bottle?

Anybody?

I would sub in dextrose for the brown sugar. I have never used concentrate so I would personally use 2 gallons of juice, the sugar, and the concentrate to reach your 3 gallon mark.

Not sure about the mead yeast.

I did a similar recipe for three gallons, and the brown sugar made it WAY too tart. I read after I had started it about the effects of brown sugar, that it does more to make stuff tart than sweet. Go with the dextrose for the higher ABV.

Try using an english ale yeast. It will leave the fruitiness in it.

placervilledan said:

I did a similar recipe for three gallons, and the brown sugar made it WAY too tart. I read after I had started it about the effects of brown sugar, that it does more to make stuff tart than sweet. Go with the dextrose for the higher ABV.

Click to expand...

Well, that explains why my cider tastes like a granny smith apple... nice apple flavor, but so tart that almost no one wants to drink it.

Did you find a way to fix yours?

Well, my recipe was something as follows for two gallons:

tree top juice
2 cansof concentrate
1 lb of brown sugar
WL Sweat Mead yeast

My starting gravity was 1.10.

On top of the tartness, there is a lot of alcohol burn as well. Interestingly, I have a friend who is big into whiskeys, and he came over and we started drinking my creation. Turned out that it grew on us. Could be that the more we drank, the more we didn't remember. But actually, I kinda like it now. It definately has an unusual flavor profile, but that profile has a lot to like if you can get past the mouth pucker/alcohol burn. All that to say that I didn't try to fix it, as much as just understand it, and NEVER make it again.

Ok so taking your recommendations into consideration I think this will be my recipe.

2 gallons of apple juice
1 lb dextrose or table sugar
Wyeast London Ale III 1318

That sounds good. I just did basically the same: 1 gallon of juice, Ale Yeast (don't remember which, LBHS gave it to me). Please give an update on this. I'm really curious to see how the ale/beer yeasts do compared with the cider/wine/mead types.