Time to transfer to secondary? to crawl space?

[jenzed]

Hello! Bumper crop (1000 lbs) of apples -> new cider maker -> new member. Seems like a common path for many people in this forum.

I have two 23 litre (6 gal) fermenting buckets in a 66 F closet. I pitched yeast on Sept 25 with an SG of 1.054. I am now at an SG of just over 1 (maybe 1.01? I find hydrometers hard to read). The cider smells and tastes good, and at 8 AM this morning gave me an unexpected nice little buzz.

I've read books and watched videos and read forums (ummm, hello!) and I'm trying to weigh the following conflicting circumstances with regards to racking off to my glass carboys:

- Maybe I should avoid preemptively finishing fermentation, leave the cider on the lees in the buckets for another week, recheck the SG, and if it's the same, rack off then? Or leave it even longer?
- Maybe I should avoid oxidization in the fermenting buckets (due to greater oxygen exposure) so it would be better to rack off now?
- We have a crawl space under the house that is cooler (probably in the 50s F but I haven't checked). However it's inconvenient to access, so I want to wait until the cider is ready to forget for a few months (still in the carboy but at the point where I don't have to monitor the airlock). Should I rack to the glass carboys now, give them another couple of weeks in the closet with airlocks, then transfer them to the crawl space with bungs? Or bottle before moving to the crawl space?

Thanks so much for your advice!

 

[Rish]

Welcome to HBT!

You should wait a few days to a week then check SG again to see if it has dropped anymore. If it has, check every couple of days until you get two readings that are the same, then you'll know fermentation is finished.

I leave my cider on the lees in the fv until it has dropped clear (sometimes 6+ weeks) then bottle. In your case, I'd leave it where it is in the fv until clear then bottle and move to your crawl space. It'll condition in the bottle as well as it will in a carboy