How do I know when it's done?

[newise]

This is my first batch ever, and I think it might be ready to bottle but I don't know how to tell for sure.

I started with 5 gallons of store-bought preservative-free apple juice, added 2 cups brown sugar and a bit of yeast nutrient, then 2 packets of whatever generic yeast came with my "homebrew starter kit". Kept it in primary fermenter bucket for almost two weeks until bubbles stopped. Then, I racked it into a plastic carboy for secondary fermentation. At that time, it tasted and smelled really alcoholic, but still relatively normal tasting, like a dry English cider, but yeastier, probably due to me accidentally stirring up some dead yeast gunk from the bottom of the bucket.

So, it's been hanging out in the secondary fermenter for like two weeks and it's not bubbling or really doing anything. It's pretty much the same color as the juice I started with.

Is it ready to bottle? If so, should I back sweeten it with something at bottling time? And how would I go about doing that in a way that won't give me bottle bombs?

Frankly, I'm surprised I got this far without ruining my first batch, so I fear my time is coming to mess something up...

 

[Hello]

What kind of yeast and how large were the packets? 2 packets seem like a whole lot for cider that you only added 2 cups of brown sugar to.

Is it ready to bottle? What was your OG and what is your gravity now? Can you back-sweaten? Do you need to? How do you like it? Want it sweeter, then yes. Remember, if you bottle and carb or if you bottle at all then you need to pasteurize or keep those bottles cold at all times. If you back-sweaten with a fermentable sugar then the yeast will want to eat that. You have to stop the yeast by keeping the cider cold or pasteurizing to kill the yeast. Look at the sticky on stove top pasteurization.

In the end, back-sweatening is a taste preference. If you don't have a hydrometer then go get one. It wouldn't really do much for you now, but while some will say they never use it and wouldn't waste the time, I find it to be one of the most valuable tools of home brewing that is inexpensive to boot.

 

[Cyclman]

Or, a refractometer, you can get them on homebrewfinds if you follow it for sometimes < $25. With the Sean Terill calculator, you can estimate FG. Wastes less product, doesn't break like a hydrometer.

To back sweeten, you can use a sugar substitute, it's non fermentable. You can bring up the temp on the cider to pasteurize it, but then you can't carb it.

I leave mine dry, if I want it sweet, I add a little sugar or honey at serving. I find I usually prefer it dry.