Can I bottle it?

I fermented a batch of cider this year that I think tastes better than any other I have made in the past. Even better, I pressed the cider at a friend's place who has a small orchard and got the juice for free. It included a bunch of different apples, and even some crab apples.

Anyway, it has been fermenting (slowly) since 10/3 and I took a SG reading tonight that said it was at 1.008 (it still has a perceptible sweetness to it). Here is my question...would be safe to go ahead and bottle it in beer bottles without any priming sugar? I don't care if it carbonates or not (it is quite tasty still). If it does, that would be fine too. My question is: At 1.008, even if it fermented out completely, would I get bottle bombs? Is there a way to calculate that?

Thanks a lot!

You would think that it would be finished since you started 10/3, but 1.008 seems high. I do not have much experience, but what I have done has gotten below 1.000. I would be wary of bottle bombs.

5 ozs of cane sugar for priming would be the equivalent of .003 impact on gravity in 5 gallons. If your 1.008 ferments out to 1.000, you will have 3X the 'standard' carbonation.

OK. That is what I needed to know. Thanks...maybe I will try this bottle pasteurization thing.

It could be a stuck fermentation, and by bottling it you are aerating/degassing, and adding more sugar could unstick it, then you could have potential bombs. Do you remember what kind of yeast you used, where the gravity started at, and what-if any additional sugar you added? What fermentation temp?

By the way, that's really only an issue if you want it carbonated. If you bottle it still and past* or sorbate/sulfite it, you are done.

I used straight fresh pressed cider from various apples, Lavlin K1-1116 Wine Yeast + Fermax Yeast Nutrient. OG was 1.052. It has been at around 60 deg the whole time and I did not add additional sugar.

I hate to sulfite it (thats same as camden tablets, right?) but I guess that is an easy solution (and easy is good right now). It is quite tasty still. Maybe I will go that way.

That's weird that it would stick at 1.008 with wine yeast and yeast nutrient, and relatively low starting gravity. You need someone more knowledgeable than me to chime in here.

Well I dont know for sure if it is stuck. It is going slow for sure, but there are still some light bubbles on the surface. It has been very cool where it is fermenting. I will take a reading again in a week or so...