Never made Cider before...can this be done?

I've never done a cider before. Need some advice from folks "in-the-know". My son wanted to make a batch of cider for a friend's wedding. I found and followed the "Edwort's Apfelwein" recipe and it has been in the primary carboy for about four and a half weeks now. I have not checked the gravity as of yet but it appears to have stopped fermenting. Here are the questions, his friend is getting married in three weeks. I would like to know if it were bottled now would it be ready (carbonated) by then? I would prefer not to keg. Would I use priming sugar just as i would for a bottling a beer? Any concerns of exploding bottles? This cider uses the Montrachet wine yeast, I'm just not familiar with what to expect.

Thanks, any insight/advice is much appreciated,

 

I am very new to this, too. However, I have read a lot. If you checked the gravity and it is under 1.005, then it has converted most of the sugars. When checking, take care to minimize contamination of bacteria. I had to look up the recipe and it tells me that if the cider has cleared, then that is another sign the yeast has started to drop. Sometimes it helps to taste the cider to detect any off flavors, too. If you don't want very much sediment in the cider, then you rack it to a similar container and then rack again into bottles. If I recall, to prime the bottles involves putting 1 teaspoon per 20 fluid ounces. After 1 week of priming/aging, it will taste a lot better. I have read some threads that say that it will take a while to age until it tastes right. I dunno. It seems too early to drink it after 3 weeks but you will have to taste right before to determine it's all right/drinkable. Have fun!

 

It should be done, but take the gravity to verify. It should be pretty dry at this point. You can carb just like beer with priming sugar.

If you want a sweet cider you can back sweeten, but that making bottling more challenging since you need to pasteurize the bottles.

 

Not an expert in cider, but I'm making some currently, seems like 4.5 weeks is a long time to sit in the primary bucket. Many of the recipes I've read on this site only having it in the primary for 5-9 days.

 

Taste it and see if you like it before making any decisions about what to do next.

 

Guy's, thanks for the feed back. I am going to bottle this up tomorrow. Sooo...about 3/4 cup of priming sugar for 5 gallons?

 

I'd recommend using a priming sugar calculator and weighing the sugar out. The 3/4 cup will get you close.