Cranberry "juice cocktail" - still not finished

Hi all,

I love unusual cider experiments, and have tried a bunch of the more common variants we all love discussing here - apple, pear-apple, etc. I even tried mango once. (I liked it, but everyone else felt it tasted a bit underripe.)

I'm now trying cranberry "juice cocktail". It's just one type of fruit juice, but with added water & sugar, of course. I used a white wine yeast (was out of champagne), tossed in a pinch of corn sugar to get things going, and waited.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

It's going on 4 weeks now, and the darn thing just won't finish. Now, to be clear, I'm not talking about a rapid bubbling of the airlock. Rather, this is a slow, painful process that seems to be generating a minor amount of gas per hour. The surface has only a partial ring of tiny bubbles around the edge, and a few stragglers on the surface proper.

As far as I can tell (visually), there's nothing bubbling up from the bottom, etc. as there had been initially.

Here's my question: At what point can I consider this "done" and ready to bottle? Yes, I know this isn't a hobby for the impatient, but this seems egregious, especially by cider standards. However, I don't want 30+ bottle bombs either.

Thoughts?

Thank you.

The best way to tell if it is finished is with a hydrometer. If the reading is at 1.000 or around there, then it should be finished. I would take a reading and then check agian in a day or so later. If they are the same, them it should be done and ready to bottle.

Thanks. I sort of figured that'd be the proper way.

Now, not to sound completely naive, but I've never cared enough about ABV to bother with the hydrometer. Do I just:
- soak it in sterilizer,
- remove the stopper/airlock,
- submerge the hydrometer,
- take the measurement,
- re-sterilize & re-insert the stopper?

I'm assuming that's the way, but would feel so much better with confirmation.

Thanks again!

It depends of what size of carboy or bucket you are using. The best way is to use a device called a theif to pull off a sample then use a testing tube to put the hydrometer in to test. If you dont have one then you can just pull the stopper and put the hydrometer in, give it a spin and let it settle. There are a lot of instructions on here on the proper way to test. Yes you will need to sterilize everything with a good sanitizer. I use a no rinse sanatizer. Let us know it turns out.

All,

Looks pretty fixed at right around 1.0, so may bottle this weekend if the readings are consistent. (Couldn't get the hydrometer out of the carboy, so am just leaving it in there.)

Thanks!