First racking

[The_italian_cider_maker]

Hi all!
I started the fermentation on December 23rd with 1.060 sg. Now I'm around 1.030 and the fermentation speed is around 114 FSU.
Based on the jolicoeur's book maybe I should wait until 1.020 sg but in another section of the same book he wrote that an early first racking could be done between 1.040-1.020.

Any advice?
This is my first time and I'm not sure about the right timing...

Thank you all!

 

[Maylar]

In his example he racked at 1.025 I think. Your a bit slower than his typical batch. Good for you keeping it that low.

 

[The_italian_cider_maker]

In his example he racked at 1.025 I think. Your a bit slower than his typical batch. Good for you keeping it that low.

@Maylar thanks. I'll leave it there till at least the sg drops to 1.020, then I'll do the first racking.

 

[Chalkyt]

You may notice that Jolicoeur refers to making the first racking when the turbulent phase quiets down (i.e. the foam vanishes gradually, leaving some brown deposits on the surface). Also, he says that "there is no set point of transition between the turbulent phase and secondary phase".

I basically follow Jolicoeur's approach and do my primary fermentation at 15C-18C (because that is the temperature of my "cool store room" in Fall) in an open but covered "bucket" so it is easy to simply check the foam buildup and decline. It usually settles around SG1.020 to 1.030 after 1-2 weeks, at which point I rack to secondary. I guess if you started late in December, your temperature would be lower than mine and more like Jolicoeur's, resulting in slower fermentation time (good!)

I find that this approach avoids too much mucking around with tracking the primary SG and produces very good results.

 

[The_italian_cider_maker]

@Chalkyt my room temperature is around 8-10 °.
Based on your experience, maybe I'm near the first racking time. My sg is now 1.030 and, yes, it's a very slow fermentation (started with 140 FSU on late December, now it's around 110 FSU). I'm at 4 week since the fermentation start, so I'm probably at the right time for the racking.

Thanks for your share.