tiny bubbles...

zahna · 07-20-2006, 09:12 PM

I've had my first batch of cider fermenting since late May. I've re-racked a few times during this period. Even since my latest re-racking a few weeks ago, I'm still seeing tiny CO2 bubbles rising in the carboy and the airlock bubbles maybe once a minute, if that. This is my first batch of anything using a carboy. I was assuming the bubbling would stop when it was ready, but now I'm not entirely sure. Could someone shed some light into readiness indicators other than specifically relying on gravity readings? Also, what's a good way to take a gravity reading without contaminating the cider? Thanks.

prey · 07-21-2006, 09:35 AM

All you need to do is sanitize your wine thief before going in... other than that I have no clue. I'd say go ahead and bottle it, because at that rate I doubt you will have any bottle bombs. I've bottled my cider after 1 1/2 weeks of fermentation while bubbles were still coming up and it's been about a week in the 85 degree garage. Nothing has exploded yet. Good luck.

zahna · 07-21-2006, 03:41 PM

Thanks for the info. Is the cider you mentioned the cider from your other threads? Did you add any priming sugar to it before bottling? I'm seeing two paths for bottling here: it's been fermenting a while, so I thought about adding maybe 1/4 cup of cane sugar to get good carbonation; however, at the same time, it is still bubbling so it might have enough sugar remaining where I could just bottle it without priming it and still get good carbonation. Could you speculate on which could be the better way to go to produce good carbonation without blowing things up? I know this is all really speculative, but everyone here has more experience with cider than I do. Thanks for the input!

prey · 07-21-2006, 07:41 PM

Yeah, the cider I'm talking about is the one I posted a picture on with my lunch in the priming thread just below this. I basically did a taste test and if the cider had my desired sweetness, I left it alone and went ahead to bottling. For all my ciders so far I have never had to prime because the end product finished rather sweetly (using nottingham yeast). Let me know how sweet your cider is. Good luck!