How long left bottled up for?

I made my first batch and it's now bottled up and in the fridge.

Question is; how long does this maturing process take? It wasn't that palitable when I first bottled it, not BAD but not great.

Cheers

Take it out of the fridge and let it condition for a couple months or so at room temp. Let the yeast do some work on it. If it is cold they are sluggish if not dormant and are going to take forever.

My apfelwine (german hard cider recipe from here) At 6 months people didn't like it. until. When it was 12 months old, and they loved it.

Thanks for the response revvy. I thought I had to have in the cool to prevent it from further fermenting, I thought that stage had ended. My concern is the bottles (which are more jars with metal screwtops) might break. I also added a campden tablet at the end of the last ferm stage to stop ferm.....

Perhaps I can put the bottles in a bucket I have and clover the top....

Izzoard said:

Thanks for the response revvy. I thought I had to have in the cool to prevent it from further fermenting, I thought that stage had ended. My concern is the bottles (which are more jars with metal screwtops) might break. I also added a campden tablet at the end of the last ferm stage to stop ferm.....

Perhaps I can put the bottles in a bucket I have and clover the top....

Click to expand...

did you stop the fermentation early by cold crashing? or did you let it peter out and end?


Im assuming you cold crashed.

Now what you want to do is rack into your final carboy or keg or bottles or whatever you plan on using. There should be little to no yeast left....or just enough to bottle carb and thats all.

Lunarpancake said:

did you stop the fermentation early by cold crashing? or did you let it peter out and end?


Im assuming you cold crashed.

Now what you want to do is rack into your final carboy or keg or bottles or whatever you plan on using. There should be little to no yeast left....or just enough to bottle carb and thats all.

Click to expand...

It sorta petered out, was still bubbling though, but slowly. I added the campden as this is the first time I've done this and I know the bottles are far from perfect...

Will the flavour change much while in the bottles? I've 4 full bottles and one 2/3 full which I'm tasting every now and again, although I figure the opening and closing will allow fresh air in each time and hence the affect flavour.

I see this first batch as a test, learn lessing the practical way and imporve the 2nd time, but it would be nice if I could drink the stuff and perhaps even get a bit of a kick off it one Fri night

if it fermented out, id condition at 70(f) for a few weeks and check it. Just in case, keep in a container that will collect a mess should a bottle blow up.

I'm sorry for my confusion..Did you bottle in mason jars? Was it done fermenting? These hold pressure but I'm not sure how much..Be sure it is done fermenting..age in cool place but not fridge..I age for 6 to 24 months..My last batch tasted the best at my last bottle at 2 years..so I guess to answer your question..it will keep improving for several years..however in the right conditions..a mason jar opened and closed will oxidize the wine for sure and that will just plain be bad..hope this helps.

jay

Izzoard said:

Thanks for the response revvy. I thought I had to have in the cool to prevent it from further fermenting, I thought that stage had ended. My concern is the bottles (which are more jars with metal screwtops) might break. I also added a campden tablet at the end of the last ferm stage to stop ferm.....

Perhaps I can put the bottles in a bucket I have and clover the top....

Click to expand...

You may have killed the yeast. If that's the case, the beer might never carbonate. Carbonation in bottle-conditioned beer comes from yeast fermenting the priming sugar to produce CO2. You need this, or no bubbles.

I'm guessing you come from a wine or cider making background. beer is similar, but different enough that you need to understand the beer-specific processes. www.howtobrew.com is a great resource for the new (and not-so-new) brewer.

if you have a way to you can keg the cider and carbonate it that way.

Mason jars don't hold pressure- they hold a vacuum. As soon as any pressure would build up from carbonation, the pressure should be released. That sounds like it should prevent bottle bombs. Campden doesn't kill yeast, so you can't depend on it to stop fermentation.

I'd leave it in the fridge for now, since it's possible that fermentation hadn't finished. It'll take longer to condition that way, but should be safest.

I recommend taking a look at the stickies at the top of the cider page- that should help you from having any problems in the future.