When to bottle / drink?

[seanomac]

I started my first attempt at hard cider back on October 4th. My OG was 1.071. I checked it about 1.5 weeks ago and it had dropped to about 1.004 or 1.006, can't remember. I then racked it over to a glass carboy, popped the airlock on it and moved it to the basement.

It doesn't seem to have cleared too much. How clear does this stuff get? I started with unpasteurized cider from an orchard. I have not grabbed a sample to try yet. Should it be ready to drink? I keep hearing that the longer it sits, the better it gets, but I want some soon! It's been about 2 months since I started fermentation.

I was hoping to bottle some as is and maybe prime a couple of bottles to let it carb, just so I can compare and see what I prefer. Most of the threads I have read give sugar quantities for 6 gallon batches. How would I know how much to add to say a 22oz bottle or a champagne bottle? I don't want any explosions.

 

[Dos_Locos_Brewery]

To carbonate by the bottle, there are dextrose tablets made for the purpose. If you don't mind winging it, 1 level tsp for 12 oz will get you close (2 for the bomber or champagne bottle, I guess - you are, after all, winging it).

 

[Yan]

Some apple varieties make cider that will never clear, due to pectin. If you don't like a cloudy cider, you can use pectic enzyme to clear it. Personally, I don't mind pectin haze in cider at all.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I wait till my ciders are crystal clear, clear enough to read newsprint through, then I prime & bottle. As long as you didn't heat your juice, it should clear by itself with nothing more than time. Even the unpasturized, unfiltered, brown, cloudy juice/sweet cider will clear given time. Regards, GF.

 

[seanomac]

OK, so after reading a bit more, I realize that I may not end up with clear cider anyway. This is my first batch ever and I sort of jumped right into it. I did heat the cider to around 160 (no boil or simmer) for maybe 10-15 mins to kill any bacteria. I didn't have campden tablets and was just following the advice of a coworker who has made many batches. After reviewing his instructions, I see that he only heated a small amount to disolve the sugar and then added it to the rest of the batch. Oh well. I guess I don't care if my 1st batch is pretty. Any thoughts on how the flavor might be affected? I'm planning to pull a sample out with the wine thief this weekend to see what I've got.

 

[Yan]

From what I understand, boiling temperature will set the pectin, but cider must heated to sub-boiling temperatures will still clear or not, depending on the apple varieties and whether the juice is filtered or not. There are more than a few traditionally made commercial ciders that are well-aged, but stay cloudy and traditionally speaking, the must is never heated.

I only heat the must if it sits too long between pressing and pitching, since I always use freshly pressed stuff, otherwise I don't worry and pitch a healthy, competitive starter straight into the must very soon after pressing. I've never had an infection this way, but I get paranoid if the must sits too long. I'll have to see if heating affects the cloudiness, but so far with the unfiltered stuff I use, it's all slightly cloudy. I never found heat to have an effect on the flavour, since I will use pretty minimal heat, and keep a lid on to keep aromas in. I only really do it out of paranoia.

I've seen a lot of different types of apples used to make juice, and some does indeed clear on it's own (like Granny Smith), just by letting it sit, and then some juice will never clear even after running it through cheesecloth twice. I think it's reasonable to assume that some types of apples have a different sort of fiber to them, and so some can take much longer to clear than others. Perhaps over time, anything will clear, but with apples it just seems that I'd rather be drinking it after a year or so, no matter how clear it is. As long as the yeast falls out.