Hi all,
I am sure these questions have been answered before but I haven't turned up the answers to my exact situation in fairly exhaustive searches. But forgive me if I missed another thread.
This is my second year making cider and last year turned out great, but I LOST my recipe and forget some bits here and there! I used the recipe from a local brew store staffer but he's not there any longer.
Here's the situation.
* Fresh cider treated only with UV light, 1.052 original gravity
* Fermented 5 gal bucket with a pack of champagne yeast - E-1118 Lalvin
* Temp downstairs was 70 deg at the time. Don't know precise temp upstairs but it was probably 72 deg.
* Allowed to ferment for about a week and half, never saw any bubbles (same as last year). At that point I got a 1.003 final gravity reading and the temperature was about 68 deg downstairs so with temp adjustment I assumed that was 1.000 or below--finished. That said, the cider tasted slightly sweeter to me than it did at the same step last year (if memory serves, which it probably does not). For that reason I was a little concerned about whether it was done fermenting or not. Nonetheless I made the silly decision to continue, rather than let it sit another week to be sure. Don't ask me why, I don't know.
* Per local guy's recipe I skipped secondary and went directly to bottle conditioning. I loaded carbonation drops into bottles and siphoned cider in, on September 29.
* Bottles have been sitting to condition since then.
Questions.
1. Local Guy had, if I remember correctly, told me that I need to refrigerate once conditioning is complete. I seem to remember that was a couple weeks. Do you agree? In that case, it is time for me to refrigerate. It should be drinkable in that case, from now on. Agree that I need to refrigerate at this point? My cellar is not reliably cool, though it's probably in the high 50s now.
2. If fermentation had NOT completed by 9-29, and I now have over-fermented cider in my bottles, they could become bottle bombs. I haven't been able to find specific information for how do I figure that out (since none have exploded yet)? And if I do have a chance of bottle bombs, does that mean there's nothing I can do about it? I like to give these bottles as gifts but I would never share them if there is a chance of them exploding. Once they are loaded in the fridge, I assume the chance of explosion goes down since the gas is cooled (contracts in volume). Is that accurate?
If I did have bottle bombs, would they have gone off by now?
Thanks for reading all that and your advice!
AB
I am sure these questions have been answered before but I haven't turned up the answers to my exact situation in fairly exhaustive searches. But forgive me if I missed another thread.
This is my second year making cider and last year turned out great, but I LOST my recipe and forget some bits here and there! I used the recipe from a local brew store staffer but he's not there any longer.
Here's the situation.
* Fresh cider treated only with UV light, 1.052 original gravity
* Fermented 5 gal bucket with a pack of champagne yeast - E-1118 Lalvin
* Temp downstairs was 70 deg at the time. Don't know precise temp upstairs but it was probably 72 deg.
* Allowed to ferment for about a week and half, never saw any bubbles (same as last year). At that point I got a 1.003 final gravity reading and the temperature was about 68 deg downstairs so with temp adjustment I assumed that was 1.000 or below--finished. That said, the cider tasted slightly sweeter to me than it did at the same step last year (if memory serves, which it probably does not). For that reason I was a little concerned about whether it was done fermenting or not. Nonetheless I made the silly decision to continue, rather than let it sit another week to be sure. Don't ask me why, I don't know.
* Per local guy's recipe I skipped secondary and went directly to bottle conditioning. I loaded carbonation drops into bottles and siphoned cider in, on September 29.
* Bottles have been sitting to condition since then.
Questions.
1. Local Guy had, if I remember correctly, told me that I need to refrigerate once conditioning is complete. I seem to remember that was a couple weeks. Do you agree? In that case, it is time for me to refrigerate. It should be drinkable in that case, from now on. Agree that I need to refrigerate at this point? My cellar is not reliably cool, though it's probably in the high 50s now.
2. If fermentation had NOT completed by 9-29, and I now have over-fermented cider in my bottles, they could become bottle bombs. I haven't been able to find specific information for how do I figure that out (since none have exploded yet)? And if I do have a chance of bottle bombs, does that mean there's nothing I can do about it? I like to give these bottles as gifts but I would never share them if there is a chance of them exploding. Once they are loaded in the fridge, I assume the chance of explosion goes down since the gas is cooled (contracts in volume). Is that accurate?
If I did have bottle bombs, would they have gone off by now?
Thanks for reading all that and your advice!
AB
