Too much sugar in pear cider? Salvageable?

[keevie]

Last weekend, I made about two gallons of pear juice from the pear tree in my yard, and wanted to make cider---so I headed to my local home brew shop, and asked them what I needed. I got campden tablets, champagne yeast, and yeast nutrient.

First I added a campden tablet to each ~gallon, and waited about 36 hours.

I wanted it to be around 8%, so I added about 2.25 cups of granulated sugar to each gallon, along with my champagne yeast and a teaspoon of nutrient.

I don't have a hydrometer, so I don't know how much sugar is actually in it, but I'm beginning to think it was waay too much. For the first days, a lot of the sugar just sat at the bottom of the carboys, and then on the third day it was all of a sudden gone. It's been sitting in my bedroom (probably around 70 degrees?) for about three days now, and looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/OyigEMO.jpg

In principle, I guess higher abv doesn't seem like a bad thing, but I really don't want to have to wait months for this stuff to be drinkable. Plus, it would be nice if it actually tasted like the delicious pears from my tree rather than just alcohol. I read that if I rack into a new carboy with more juice (which would have to be store bought) that can be a good way of lowering the gravity---but is it too late for that?

 

[NTXBrauer]

You may be a little high on the amount of sugar added. I normally use around 180 grams (almost 1 cup) of corn sugar per gallon to make hard cider. From the pics, it looks to be fermenting fine. I do believe that age will improve the flavor. I am a huge fan of pears and want to know how this turns out.

 

[gregbathurst]

I tasted quite a few pear ciders recently at a tasting. The common thing was not much flavor. They were mostly carbonated so were like alcoholic 7up, with a bit more body. I don't think you will ever get much flavor from a drink of fermented pears, but some people are happy with a drink that is inoffensive and easy to drink.