secondary time

Hey guys, I am doing a hard cider beer that my wife wanted and the instructions say that after the grvity on the Hydrometer reaches 1.006 after 10 to 14 days you can bottle it with 1 tsp of sugar per 750 mil. It has been 12 days and the gravity on the Hydro, is at 1.002 What I am asking is, can I put it in a secondary for about 14 days or so and be ok to clear the beer and still have a good taste? And will I be ok with 3/4 cup sugar in my 5 gal carboy when I go to bottle it? :rockin:

Time can only help, at least when it's still measured in weeks.

Rather than bottling at a particular number called out in the recipe, look for no movement on several successive hydrometer readings at least a day or two apart - it's not uncommon for cider to go below 1.000, though that may not happen with a cider-beer blend. Three days with no movement is a rule of thumb for the minimum, but a week or two is just fine.

Prime the same as you do for beer, it will work fine.

Yeah, prime with 3/4 cup dextrose. I let all my beers/ciders/meads sit for a minimum of 2 weeks in secondary, then I worry about the hydrometer reading. The brew will clear in the secondary so if you let it sit about a month or so, it really won't harm anything.

If in doubt, secondary is a wiser move than potential bottle bombs. I've done several ciders with different yeasts and they all go down to 1.000 or below. Yours seems really high for a cider.

BTW, I've never heard of bottling cider after only 2 weeks, that would make me really nervous. I usually leave mine in secondary for a couple months or more. Just my 2 cents.