First Sparkling Hard Cider

My OG was 1.137. It's been in the primary for about a month, and is still quite actively fermenting. Any thoughts at what point to transfer to secondary? [I'm considering racking onto some fresh (heated to kill the funk) raspberries]. Does anyone know what the final gravity range for a hard cider should be? Thanks

I was just watching something on Brewing TV last night on cider. They were saying that it is not uncommon for your FG for a cider to be 1.000 or even a few points lower. 0.996 for example.

Apple juice is all simple sugars. It will completely ferment out . Providing the yeast is man enough it will end somewhere south of 1.000.

The yeast needs to be capable of going over 18%. Most yeasts will stall before that. It's probably not going to ferment the raspberry sugars as the yeast will reach it's limit with the base cider.

You might want to think about diluting the original cider 50/50 with apple juice. Apple juice comes in around 1.050, so it would result in an effective OG of about 1.095, with a potential of 13%. Most wine yeasts should be capable of fermenting that.

The last cider I made started out at 1.085 and finished at 0.998. Cider usually ferments ALL THE WAY, unless your starting gravity is so high that you exceed the alcohol tolerance of the yeast strain. Wait for the fermentation to completely stop before racking onto the fruit. The fruit will probably re-start a small fermentation, unless the yeast is completely killed at that point. Don't rush it. 1.137 is a TON of sugar. Leave it alone as long as you need to for fermentation to finish.

Using an online calculator, that will work out to be about 18%. Hard cider alright!

You do realize the cider won't be sweet unless you take some extra steps to backsweeten, right? Just fermenting apple juice will leave you with a dry, English style cider, not a Strongbow/Woodchuck type cider.

I assume since you are adding raspberries, you probably are expecting a sweet cider. If that's the case, let us know if you bottle or keg so we can give you the various backsweetening techniques.

Also note for future posts that there is a cider subform here on the board. You'll get better response there.

Good luck!