When to bottle

This is my first brew of anything, and I'm confused by the conflicting recommendations out there...

Here's what I've done so far. Should I go ahead and bottle or wait longer?

The bears were killing our trees, so I juiced the apples and fermented it in a plastic primary - went very well and ended up with a sg of 1.001 starting at 1.040. I had a taste, and it was great! After 10 days (and activity had died down), I racked it to a glass carboy and added some isenglas. It's been in there a week. There's about 1/2" of lees at the bottom and 1" of relatively clear cider on top. The rest is opaque. There's no bubbling going on.

So...some of the recipes out there say to bottle at this point. I'm not sure if I should do that or allow more time to clear. Do I run the risk of bad tastes from the lees if I leave it in the carboy? Advice appreciated! thanks

I rack about every 30 days or so if there are fresh lees. I like my beverages clear, so I never rush to bottle. You can always bottle later, when it's clear and you're sure it's finished. You should check the sg every time you rack, and see if it changes.

Any clarifies should be left for a minimum of 30 days. If not you will have a massive drop out of sediment in the bottles. After 30 days of clairifing then rack it and let it sit a bit longer, rack every 30 days until clear. It should be crystal clear before bottling when using isenglas. Isenglas is one of the best but just make sure you give it time to do its job. Bottling now will give some nasty flavors later as the isenglas is still suspended.

Thanks! I'll give it 30 days and rack again and put the bottles away for now. Man, the waiting is hard!

dgobrew said:

Thanks! I'll give it 30 days and rack again and put the bottles away for now. Man, the waiting is hard!

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I hear that! Brewing is adictive cause once the first batch comes off another gets started and then an other carboy is added and soon you'll have a few carboys. I try to keep three 5 gallon batches going as the bottles tend to disappear faster than you think.