How long for secondary fermentation if i plan to bottle carbonate?

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JG25

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2025
Messages
8
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Location
Michigan
Good morning everyone,

New member here, i'm Jesse from Holland, Michigan. i started homebrewing last week.

My latest batch i'm calling batch #3 is 6 gal of store bought apple juice (Kirkland brand), Red star Premier Blanc wine yeast, fermaid K nutrient and added some black tea for tannins.

Pitched yeast on 1-7-25, SG: 1.044, FG: 1.00 on 1/12/25 (will re-check this in a couple days). Must temp on 1-11-25 was 71.1 Fahrenheit room temp steady at 68.

Moved from Primary fermentation bucket to 5 gal and 1 gal glass carboys. My question is this: I want this to be a sparkling cider, but I also want this cider to age a little bit and clear before I bottle. How long in your experience have you let it sit in secondary before you moved to bottling with priming sugar? This seems to be a hard question to find an answer for. I did sample some of the cider after taking my hydrometer reading and I will say for a brand new cider it was surprisingly drinkable.

Thank you for any and all feedback! I'm happy to be here, I've been reading lots of posts over the past few months as I got ready to start my homebrewing journey.
 
The short answer is "whatever it takes".

In my case I don't really stick to a timetable. The initial fermentation, which I do in an open container, takes anything up to four weeks or so (depending on added nutrients which will rev things along quickly) until the SG goes from 1.050 to somewhere in the region of 1.020 -1.030. Because I mostly use my own apples, pressing and fermentation has to wait for them to be ripe which is usually late Fall when the temperature is getting low, and this has an influence the fermentation speed. Ideally "low and slow is the way to go". i.e. low temperature and slow fermentation is preferable to a fast fermentation which can "blow off" flavour.

There is nothing special about all of this. Racking to secondary takes place when the turbulent fermentation settles down. With my pressed apples the juice has a lot of solids so initially it fizzes up to form a thick scum on top which can make a mess through an airlock, hence the open container. I then rack to a carboy under airlock to complete the fermentation. If I am using store-bought juice (occasionally if I am short of apples) I will simply start in a carboy and leave it there because not much foam is generated.

Often, I carbonate to leave a touch of sweetness (bottle at 1.008 and then pasteurise at 1.004 or about 2 vols of CO2), usually after a month or so. At this stage it is ready to drink, but I do find that the cider improves a little after sitting around for a few months and really mellows after a year (if it lasts that long).

A downside of leaving the fresh cider to mature is that over time the yeasts will die out, but adding a pinch of yeast for carbonation overcomes this issue. Rather than adding priming sugar, I will sometimes prime with surplus juice and bottle at the appropriate SG rather than calculate how much sugar is added. As a rough guide, fermenting 2 gravity points will result in one volume of CO2.

Have fun!
 
I don't use a secondary. I leave it in my FV until it's clear and I feel like bottling. That's usually 4 to 6 weeks and gives the yeast time to do some clean up after main fermentation. I then bottle with priming sugar and let it set for at least a month. As @Chalkyt said, it will improve with age. Good luck!

As an aside, I lived in Traverse City for awhile some years ago and made it down to Holland. Pretty area!
 
The short answer is "whatever it takes".

In my case I don't really stick to a timetable. The initial fermentation, which I do in an open container, takes anything up to four weeks or so (depending on added nutrients which will rev things along quickly) until the SG goes from 1.050 to somewhere in the region of 1.020 -1.030. Because I mostly use my own apples, pressing and fermentation has to wait for them to be ripe which is usually late Fall when the temperature is getting low, and this has an influence the fermentation speed. Ideally "low and slow is the way to go". i.e. low temperature and slow fermentation is preferable to a fast fermentation which can "blow off" flavour.

There is nothing special about all of this. Racking to secondary takes place when the turbulent fermentation settles down. With my pressed apples the juice has a lot of solids so initially it fizzes up to form a thick scum on top which can make a mess through an airlock, hence the open container. I then rack to a carboy under airlock to complete the fermentation. If I am using store-bought juice (occasionally if I am short of apples) I will simply start in a carboy and leave it there because not much foam is generated.

Often, I carbonate to leave a touch of sweetness (bottle at 1.008 and then pasteurise at 1.004 or about 2 vols of CO2), usually after a month or so. At this stage it is ready to drink, but I do find that the cider improves a little after sitting around for a few months and really mellows after a year (if it lasts that long).

A downside of leaving the fresh cider to mature is that over time the yeasts will die out, but adding a pinch of yeast for carbonation overcomes this issue. Rather than adding priming sugar, I will sometimes prime with surplus juice and bottle at the appropriate SG rather than calculate how much sugar is added. As a rough guide, fermenting 2 gravity points will result in one volume of CO2.

Have fun!
Excellent information I really appreciate it. Sounds like I racked too quickly into secondary, hopefully there’s still enough yeast in there to help clean up the cider. It’s still pretty cloudy at this point.
 
I don't use a secondary. I leave it in my FV until it's clear and I feel like bottling. That's usually 4 to 6 weeks and gives the yeast time to do some clean up after main fermentation. I then bottle with priming sugar and let it set for at least a month. As @Chalkyt said, it will improve with age. Good luck!

As an aside, I lived in Traverse City for awhile some years ago and made it down to Holland. Pretty area!
What I’m starting to realize after reading hundreds of recipes is that there’s no need to be in a hurry for anything. I’ll let this sit in secondary for a while to clear and then I’ll bottle it up with added sugar.

Yes this area of west Michigan can be very pretty, so can traverse city! Lots of breweries/cideries around
 
Yes this area of west Michigan can be very pretty, so can traverse city! Lots of breweries/cideries around
Your State Flower is the apple blossom. You can't throw a rock without hitting an apple tree. Google "cider mills near me" and you will find locally pressed apples that are far superior to any store bought juice.
 
Your State Flower is the apple blossom. You can't throw a rock without hitting an apple tree. Google "cider mills near me" and you will find locally pressed apples that are far superior to any store bought juice.
Absolutely, no shortage of apples. There's an orchard a few miles from me, I picked up some winesap and braeburn apples and made my own cider for my first batch. Too cold right now for cider presses to be running so my current batch is with juice from the store. I'll be happy this coming fall when I can get fresh pressed cider again!

I planted my own orchard as well, but it will be a few years until I get a decent harvest. Liberty, red spy, empire, jonagold, braeburn, haralson, honeycrisp, fuji, yellow transparent, wealthy and a few others. Also some pear varieties keiffer and bartlette.
 
Welcome aboard, Jesse. Here's the thing: take a lesson from the makers of sparkling wine and Champagne. They can age for years, before bottling, and to bottle prime, all they (and you) need to do is add a tiny amount of yeast into each bottle, with the sugar. THAT is precisely the original function of so-called Champagne yeasts. That yeast will happily ferment even when pitched into a liquid with 14% ABV and in solutions with knuckle-scraping pH values. Good luck with your new-found hobby. And yes, patience IS the secret ingredient that makes a good wine or mead, or cider, a great one.
 
Welcome aboard, Jesse. Here's the thing: take a lesson from the makers of sparkling wine and Champagne. They can age for years, before bottling, and to bottle prime, all they (and you) need to do is add a tiny amount of yeast into each bottle, with the sugar. THAT is precisely the original function of so-called Champagne yeasts. That yeast will happily ferment even when pitched into a liquid with 14% ABV and in solutions with knuckle-scraping pH values. Good luck with your new-found hobby. And yes, patience IS the secret ingredient that makes a good wine or mead, or cider, a great one.
Thanks! I will let this batch sit for a while then before I even think about bottling it. I will just start another batch to keep my mind off of it :)
 
Thanks! I will let this batch sit for a while then before I even think about bottling it. I will just start another batch to keep my mind off of it :)
Having a pipeline of many batches is what almost every home wine maker achieves and that means that we are never chomping at the bit to crack open bottles of wine or mead or cider before they are ready. We have bottles from batches we have made years ago, and so we are OK allowing a batch we started last week or last month to properly age with nary a thought to drink it while it is still "green".
 
Having a pipeline of many batches is what almost every home wine maker achieves and that means that we are never chomping at the bit to crack open bottles of wine or mead or cider before they are ready. We have bottles from batches we have made years ago, and so we are OK allowing a batch we started last week or last month to properly age with nary a thought to drink it while it is still "green".
Getting to that point is going to test my patience!
 

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