Adventures in Brewing - Hard Apple Cider

My first attempt at a hard apple cider was actually a surprising success; the only issue I had with it was that it ended up a bit drier than I would have preferred. We're about out of that batch, so today I set up a new batch with a couple of changes -- one intentional and the other not.  The intentional change was to add 4oz of lactose, which is a non-fermenting sugar used in porters and stouts to add residual sweetness.  The unintentional change was in the juice: before I had three gallons of unfiltered apple cider. This time of year it's harder to get that, so instead I used half filtered apple juice (not from concentrate) and half unfiltered natural apple juice (partially from concentrate).  We'll see how it turns out.

1.5 gallons filtered apple juice
1.5 gallons unfiltered apple juice
1.5 c sugar
1.5 c light brown sugar
4 oz lactose
1 11g packet Nottingham brewing yeast, started in 1c water for 15 min

Dissolv the sugars in 1/2 gallon of juice and bring to a boil, then pour into the rest of the juice. When it cools, add the yeast and seal it up to ferment.

In two weeks I'll bottle it, and in another couple of weeks we'll see how it turned out, and report back!