How much of a difference does a little time make?

So my cider was in the primary fermenter for 2 weeks. After the fermentation slowed down to about 1 bubble in the airlock every 60-90 seconds and had a gravity reading of 1.000, I transferred the cider to secondary (where I added the spices). The fermentation continued in the secondary for about 4-5 days and now there are zero bubbles in the airlock (ever) and no activity in the carboy.

I know some people on here say "leave your cider in the secondary for 6 months!" and other extremely long periods of time (I've even heard some people say "one to two years"), but I have no intention of leaving anything (beer, cider, or mead) in my fermenters for any longer than 2 months total. I'm a bit more open to bottle aging, though (but still not anywhere as near as long as a year or two).

So I'm working on a pretty rough idea of when I'll bottle. At the moment I'm thinking of the whole thing being: 2 weeks in primary (already done) and then 3 weeks in secondary (currently at a little over 1 week).

Now, my question is: how much of a difference is there between 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in secondary, 4 weeks in secondary, and 5 weeks in secondary? And what exactly are those differences? And are they major or small? I'm willing to lengthen or shorten my current plans, but not drastically (i.e. I'm not going to extend my current plan to something like 4 or 6 months).

I do apfelwein, don't know if lower alcohol ciders are that different, but I drink it in a couple of months. I ferment for a month, then bottle and let it sit for another month.

Cyclman said:

I do apfelwein, don't know if lower alcohol ciders are that different, but I drink it in a couple of months. I ferment for a month, then bottle and let it sit for another month.

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I would think that, if anything, higher alcohol beverages would take more time than lower alcohol beverages (which seems to especially be the case with beers in general).

Sounds nifty.

That said, I've found that most "apfelwein" (German-style ciders) have alcohol content around 4% or 5%. My current cider has an ABV around 7.5%, which is quite a lot stronger than most "apfelwein."

worlddivides said:

I would think that, if anything, higher alcohol beverages would take more time than lower alcohol beverages (which seems to especially be the case with beers in general).

Sounds nifty.

That said, I've found that most "apfelwein" (German-style ciders) have alcohol content around 4% or 5%. My current cider has an ABV around 7.5%, which is quite a lot stronger than most "apfelwein."

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I have had the good stuff in Germany, wow.

My homebrew comes in at 10%+. I ferment it cool (low 60s) to avoid fusels, it is smooth and clean.

I've done a few ciders, some good, some bad, to be completely honest the cider I made that sat for 1.5 years was the best! Now I have a friend that makes some awesome ciders that are drinkable in 6 weeks, he said the key is to keep the OG below 1.060 or the yeast eat everything and tastes like wine. I would recommend putting 1 bottle away for over a year and try it you will be surprised how good it is.

As far as your secondary question goes I think the only thing that will change is maybe clarity, my ciders don't clear for a few months.

IMO, cider does not need a great deal of time to age as long as you ferment at lower rather than higher temperatures. But the length of time you want to allow the cider to age before bottling will depend on whether you prefer clear cider and no sediment in the bottle or cloudy cider with sediment. The clearer you want the cider the longer it needs to bulk age. Whether you call that vessel a fermenter or simply a carboy is your business. My ciders are often aged 4 months. My apple wines about a year (this allows the malic to be transformed to lactic).

I do ciders at 18%+ABV
1 month in primary, then 1 more month in secondary with spices.
I keg so dont do the bottling thing.
I do agree that the older it gets the better it gets but like you there's no way i'm keeping my kegs/carboys/anything unusable due to bulk aging something for 6 + months. But @ 2 months it's drinkable and not bad really.

Cyclman said:

I have had the good stuff in Germany, wow.

My homebrew comes in at 10%+. I ferment it cool (low 60s) to avoid fusels, it is smooth and clean.

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I've had a few around 10%. They're definitely good.

Transamguy77 said:

I've done a few ciders, some good, some bad, to be completely honest the cider I made that sat for 1.5 years was the best! Now I have a friend that makes some awesome ciders that are drinkable in 6 weeks, he said the key is to keep the OG below 1.060 or the yeast eat everything and tastes like wine. I would recommend putting 1 bottle away for over a year and try it you will be surprised how good it is.

As far as your secondary question goes I think the only thing that will change is maybe clarity, my ciders don't clear for a few months.

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Yeah, this cider was 1.054 for the starting gravity and when I took the gravity test before transferring to secondary, I drank the sample that I took and it tasted pretty damn good. So I assume it should taste even better now.

I'll definitely be aging some of the bottles for several months (maybe even one or two for a year).

bernardsmith said:

IMO, cider does not need a great deal of time to age as long as you ferment at lower rather than higher temperatures. But the length of time you want to allow the cider to age before bottling will depend on whether you prefer clear cider and no sediment in the bottle or cloudy cider with sediment. The clearer you want the cider the longer it needs to bulk age. Whether you call that vessel a fermenter or simply a carboy is your business. My ciders are often aged 4 months. My apple wines about a year (this allows the malic to be transformed to lactic).

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Honestly I couldn't really care less about whether it's clear or not. Preference-wise, I might prefer the cloudiness (perhaps because I associate extremely cloudy soft cider as tasting better than clear apply juice). That said, I've had both cloudy and clear commercial ciders and I don't really taste any differences between them that I can associate with the cloudiness or clearness.

The recommended temperature for the yeast I used was 72F, but I kept the temperature primarily between 65F and 68F. Even though fermentation has completely stopped by now, I'm still keeping the secondary between 68F and 70F. I do, however, plan to do zero temperature control after I've bottled them, though. Too much work and probably not really worth it at that point.

Quoting from howtomakehardcider.com:

Cider will mellow over time (like wine) and the taste will become smoother with less harsh notes. If you are patient, you can let you cider rest in that secondary jug for 1-2 months, or even give it a third rack and let it hang out for 4-6 months (leaving it in secondary too long can make it taste yeasty--so rack it into a clean jug if you are going to age more than 8 weeks). Time allows the processes of malolactic fermentation to kick in, and breaks down the harsher "vinegary" taste sometimes found in young brew. But young brew is tasty too, so it is your call.