Bottling problem... Need and answer QUICK.

I went to bottle some 3 gallons of cider tonight. I've been checking the SG for the part few days. It's been at .999 for a while so I figured it's done.

I siphoned into my bottles and a few of them are fizzing! Is this a sign of continuing fermentation or just some air that into them when I was putting it into the bottles?

I need to know what to do pretty quick.... I have a 12 bottles sitting on my counter with just foil over the tops. Should I go ahead and cork and risk a bottle bomb or leave it like it is? Or am I being a hypochondriac and I'm good to go?

It's probably just some co2 coming out of solution. You didn't prime them or anything, did you?
It should be fine, if the gravity has been stable at .999 for a while. Depending on the OG, and the yeast you use, it could finish as low as .990, though.
If it's been stable at .999 for a week or so, though, I'd go ahead and bottle it. I'd bottle them with beer bottles and bottle caps, though, probably not corks if it's slightly fizzy.

Thanks Yoop, but it's already in wine bottles. I was planning this on being still cider, so no I didn't prime or anything. Even if I wanted to put it in beer bottles, I have no caps for that...

I used an ale yeast, added honey to the cider and had an OG of 1.062 or something like that. A FG of .999 sounded right to me, but now I'm having some doubts. :-(

Well, how long was it in secondary? Maybe it's just gassy cider.

Luckily I took some notes! It went into the primary on 2-21 and into the secondary on 3-13. Today being 5-11 I would think the yeast would have done their thing by now.

Well, yes, it's more than likely done. I usually don't bottle things that are fizzy, because they won't degas in the bottle. Sitting in for two months should have had most of the gas out, though, so you should be fine. Since it's already in the bottle, not much else to do except cork it!

(Next time, though, check to see if it's gassy and either wait a bit, or degas it before bottling!)

Thanks again... I'm going to assume (although we all know what assuming does) that I just got a lot of air into it when I was siphoning. I had a hard time siphoning... you know how that goes sometimes, so it wouldn't surprise me that it got a little aerated.

I'll go ahead and cork but per my girlfriends insistence I'm going to keep the bottles in the bathtub for a couple days (S.W.M.B.O. and all) that way, should things go south, it'll be easy to clean up. I'll just have to remember to move them before I shower, hahaha.

That's not a bad plan! I really don't think you'll have any problems, but it might be a little gassy when you open them, that's all.

Well, I bit the bullet and put the corks in. The bottles are in the tub wrapped in towels right now so we'll see what happens!

I'm happy to report nothing's exploded! :rockin: After 3 or 4 days it looks like I'm in the clear.

Now I just have to manage to wait a couple months (yeah right) before sampling my cider.

Shoot! With beer you can open a bottle no problem to test. In the future a small test bottle would be a good thing.

I hate to say it, but with the symptoms described, there is a teeny weeny chance it is infected. I would say to take out a bottle over the next few days and see if bubbles are forming and rising in the bottle.

I'll keep that in mind.

As far as infection is concerned... I bottled Sunday night, it's currently Thursday night and it looks perfectly still in the bottles. I think I'm good!

you know, almost every time that I bottle, some gas gets into the line, and there's a bit of fizzing when it goes into the bottle. This is either a bit of air from the siphon line, or co2 offgassing when you move the beer (cider in your case). for me, by the time I've filled all the bottles, the gas has fizzed out of the beer (cider) and it's fine. Maybe that's what you were experiencing?