Recipe Question

I originally started out wanting to make a cider. But after adding fermentables it bumped the abv up to apple wine levels. So I thought about if it was an apple wine. So I looked up all the information I could about apple cider, apple wine, apple meads, and cysers. But the information was fairly variable and nothing concrete as to what I had made.

As far as Cysers go. I've read that it's just cider and honey. With the ratio being a pound of honey per gallon of cider. Or even double the amount of honey. So with being only 4 pounds of honey. I don't know if it would just be called something else because it doesn't fall into the one pound to a gallon thing.

In my creation I used 5 gallons of fresh apple cider and 4 pounds of honey. Any information and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance everyone.

Edit: Forgot to add this, but I used english cider yeast from white labs.

Sounds like cyser. What type of yeast did you use?

I used english cider yeast from white labs.

What was your o.g.? I think cysers are usually in the 7-9% abv range. sounds close to a recipe I made a few years back, it cleared really well and took on some nice sherry notes. Good luck

The og ended up at a hefty 1.096. So well above that 7-9% when it's finished and I go to get that fg reading. So at first I thought I made an apple wine. But after looking at things, especially the fact that the only fermentables are honey. I'm really not sure what I've made. Since some of the differences between the different alcohols seemed to be subtle.

Sorry but the fermentables include the sugars in the apple juice which is likely to be about 1.25 lbs of fermentable sugar in a gallon of the juice (a gravity of about 1.0850) and the honey. My cysers tend to have about 2 lbs of honey in 1 gallon of apple juice. That gives me a starting gravity of about 1.130 . I have been using 71B as that yeast has a special affinity for the malic acid in the apple. The 71B has no problem fermenting the cyser dry. If I want the cyser to be sweeter I will stabilize it and then add more honey. The stabilization process prevents any remaining yeast from converting the added sugars from the honey.
Whether you call your liquor cider, cyser, apple wine or Jimmy seems to me to be less important than what you want to get from this batch. And what you want to get from the batch will determine what you do with it. A starting gravity of about 1.090 is a wine. But whatever you call it you will likely drink your liquor by the glass and not by the pint. A starting gravity of about 1.050 (cider) means that you can drink it by the pint.
BUT.. what is the tolerance of the yeast you chose for the potential ABV of your must? If that cider yeast cannot tolerate an alcohol environment of more than 8 or 9 percent ABV then you won't reach the 12 percent potential you have created.

Well of course. But I figured the sugars in the apples went without saying. So no need to talk like that. I know I'm only a beginner. Perhaps I should have said extra fermentables. I did keep the alcohol tolerance in mind and used another vial of the yeast and everything is going smoothly. I'm confident in how it will turn out. I'm mainly just curious in what it is at this point.

You can call it a cyser or honey/apple wine, or anything else; hell, you can call it Fred if you want. I'd say it's a cyser though.
Regards, GF.