Quantity vs. Time

Typically the formula calls for two weeks (or thereabouts) in primary with an additional week or two in secondary. This seems to apply to five gallon carboys.

I'm using one-gallon and half gallon jugs. I racked for secondary yesterday after 10 days because I'm getting the sense that smaller quantities should take less time. Is this correct?

CTYankee said:

Typically the formula calls for two weeks (or thereabouts) in primary with an additional week or two in secondary.

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I have always understood the traditional cider timeline to be ferment in the fall and bottle in the spring. I typically primary for 2-4 weeks and secondary 3-6 months. I'm not saying you can't make a cider in three weeks, but I don't think I'd call it typical. That being said, I doubt there is much difference between a one and 5 gallon timeline. It may ferment a little faster because people tend to add more yeast, but other than that I'd treat it the same. Patience.

not for me, i don't notice any difference. i make a lot of 5 liter batches and they take about the same time as larger ones. that said, the variation from batch to batch is greater than any difference between large and small. but i just leave them, at least a month in primary and at least a few more in secondary, so i would miss any subtle differences

I agree with Ginkings. The cider sitting next to me in my office was brewed with fall harvest and is waiting for spring bottling. Of course I could be bottling it right now but the temperature of my house would make bottle carbing a VERY slow process. With better control of temperature, it could have been in the secondary sooner. With better use of clearing agents it could sit in the secondary shorter too. But the timeline you gave is not very realistic.
To make that work you would need apple juice instead of cider (clear vs hazy) and an active yeast culture. You will also miss some of the taste that comes with aging by bottling it so soon.

the yeast in a 1-5 gallon yeast pack (pack for that quantity range) is not enough yeast to ferment out 1 gallon of wine. in other words that amount of yeast is a great starter but the yeast must reproduce by quite a bit to maximize the population, based on the environment. Once the liquid is fully saturated the environment has been maximized. At the point the rate of fermentation will be the same, but until you reach max population the rate on a bigger carboy will be slower. Basically it may take one day for a full yeast pack to reproduce enough to max out a one gallon batch and three days to max out a five gallon batch. As the population is building the smaller batch will be working faster because it will have a higher concentration of yeast, but once you get to max population they will ferment out at the same rate. Does my rambling make sense???

since it is february, you probably are using store bought juice.
you can easily turn around store juice from ferment to drinking in one month AND with 10 grams of dry yeast, no problem. less body than fresh juice from an orchard, but still decent.
lots of voodoo about making cider, but it is very easy, doesn't require a terribly long aging time or any special techniques

if you use fresh juice, that can take longer, but mainly it is just for clarity, if you didn't want super clear juice from super cloudy cider, you could drink it two months after ferment without problems.

frydogbrews said:

if you use fresh juice, that can take longer, but mainly it is just for clarity, if you didn't want super clear juice from super cloudy cider, you could drink it two months after ferment without problems.

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people age cider after it has cleared completely because it tastes better with age. my dry ciders are completely clear after a couple months and they are drinkable then but often very sharp tasting, after 6-8 months they have smoothed out and are far more pleasant. it's true that some ciders are fine young, and some don't age well, but misleading to suggest that ciders are only aged for clarity.

I think he is clearing the notion that you have to age cider for several months.

You don't. My ciders at 2 months are nearly identicle at 6 months.

A lot of people exaggerate I can't figure out why. Maybe sound like an expert?

OP, they will clear at about the same rate. Take less than 6 months for your cider. Enjoy.

my 1-gal batches using organic, unfiltered, pasteurized juice with baker's yeast take 2-3 weeks in primary, followed by 3-5 days in 'secondary' with added sugar to carb up, then 1 day in the fridge to chill and settle for drinking.

the juice i get comes in at 7-8% PAV. i let it ferment almost to dryness w/o adding extra sugar in primary so that the baker's yeast starts to slow as it approaches its limit of 9% PAV. taking it out of primary anywhere around 6-8% leaves me with some activity to carb in-bottle with just a little added juice or sugar to reawaken the yeast and bring back some of the sweetness.

it takes 3-4 weeks total before i'm drinking the result!

selfdestructed said:

I think he is clearing the notion that you have to age cider for several months.

You don't. My ciders at 2 months are nearly identicle at 6 months.

A lot of people exaggerate I can't figure out why. Maybe sound like an expert?

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I could not agree with this more. Aging certainly is a factor, but IMHO, after a certain point you're just denying yourself the pleasure of drinking your brew. That point, I feel, is generally less than 6 months. YMMV.

selfdestructed said:

I think he is clearing the notion that you have to age cider for several months.

You don't. My ciders at 2 months are nearly identicle at 6 months.

A lot of people exaggerate I can't figure out why. Maybe sound like an expert?

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yep i think you've cracked it. it can't possibly be that hundreds of people actually believe from their own experience that cider gets better with a few months age and want to discuss their results with others, it must be a narcissistic desire to sound pompous to strangers on the internet.