When to bottle

Hello,

I put my cider into the primary on October 1st. It is now October 17th.

I did not take a hydrometer reading because I do not have a hydrometer here at school with me.

Looking at the sides of the primary I can see very very small bubbles popping all over the place. Not as many as a week ago though. No activity in the air lock for the most part.

Seeing as its been over two weeks, should I wait another week and then bottle? I do not want to have any bottle bombs though!

Now I am only going off of what I know from this forum, but I think there are a few ways you can go from here.

1. Wait until there is ZERO action in the carboy/jug/airlock for at least a few days. Then bottle it.

2. Bottle it as it is now, but make sure you cold crash the bottles, and you can't really take them out of a cold environment for any length of time as the yeasters will probably wake back up and possibly give you a bottlebomb.

3. Bottle it as is, and pasteurize your bottles as per pappy's thread on bottle pasteurization. This way you can still keep some of the sweetness, and you might even get some carbonation, but you won't have to worry about bottle bombs if you want to take them out of the cold environment. Apparently, the only downside to this approach is that it won't keep as well (long term).

Thank you for your input. Those are all great options.

I did a little research so tell me what you think:

What if I were to wait another week, cold crash the jug for a week, and bottle. I am not shooting for a ton of carbonation so what if I didn't add any sugar before bottling?

I think your best option is this: Buy a hydrometer, take a reading immediately once you have obtained said hydrometer, then take another one 3 days later. If they are the same, bottle away. If they are different, it is still fermenting, wait longer.

I have one back home so I would rather not go out and buy another. I am just going to let it sit for another week. 3 weeks should be enough for all the sugars to be eaten so I won't have to worry about any bottle bombs. Also, cold crashing will help get most of the yeast out of suspension. What do you think?

WiscoMan said:

I have one back home so I would rather not go out and buy another. I am just going to let it sit for another week. 3 weeks should be enough for all the sugars to be eaten so I won't have to worry about any bottle bombs. Also, cold crashing will help get most of the yeast out of suspension. What do you think?

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While that's probably true, the only way to be sure that fermentation is complete is by testing the sugar level. They are what, $7? I think it's worth it.

JordanThomas said:

While that's probably true, the only way to be sure that fermentation is complete is by testing the sugar level. They are what, $7? I think it's worth it.

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It's a gamble I choose not to take. The potential costs of the bottle bomb/s could far exceed the cost of a hydrometer. Not just bottles and time, but raw materials and wasted final product, and cleaning. A hydrometer is a cheap insurance policy.....

Doongie said:

It's a gamble I choose not to take. The potential costs of the bottle bomb/s could far exceed the cost of a hydrometer. Not just bottles and time, but raw materials and wasted final product, and cleaning. A hydrometer is a cheap insurance policy.....

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Couldn't agree more.