First hard cider - fermentation stalled?

[pepindavid]

Hi,

I tried do "brew" my hard cider last week.

After some research, I ended up doing a 3 gallon batch on August 2, with this recipe :
-12 L of Rougemont apple juice (from Costco)
- 1/2 of Candi syrup (http://www.beergrains.com/belgian-candi-syrup-amber-1lb/)
- 1 packet of S-04
OG : 1.050

I plan on dry hopping it with Cascade a few days before bottling.

Fermentation started quite vigorously within about 12h (at 68F, upped to 71 after 3 days). It seems to have slowed down a lot now, and the yeast has already dropped (the cider is already almost clear).

I took a small sample two days ago: tasted good, albeit quite sweet. I got a refractometer reading of 5 Brix (didn't want to waste a full hydrometer testing), leading me to believe that there is still a lot of fermentation that should happen.

I tried rousing the yeast, but that s-04 is already packing up at the bottom.

What would you do:
- leave it alone for a few more weeks
- leave it in primary, rousing the yeast every now and then
- rack to a secondary (which I planned to do anyway, since I want to free up my 5 gallon carboy and I have a 3 gallon carboy available), racking up some of the dropped yeast in the process
- pitch more yeast
- rack to a secondary, and repitch the slurrry, adding nutrients.

I don't mind if it finishes up a bit sweet - I chose the S-04 yeast based on comments that indicated that it finishes not as dry as a champagne yeast, for example. What I'd like to avoid is having the fermentation stalled, only to have it start again at bottling time.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[pepindavid]

Hum, using different refractometer correction tools, it seems that the SG may be lower than I thought:

http://onebeer.net/refractometer.shtml would have it at 1.002
http://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/ would have it at 1.008

Maybe I'll rack to my secondary as planned, and take an accurate hygrometer reading (and let it sit a few weeks before bottling to ensure it is completed). At an ABV of approx 6%, I figured it would not need the super long conditioning that an Apfelwein may need. I'd like to bottle it while there is still some yeast in suspension to bottle carbonate and condition.