How long to leave ferment with one carboy?

[fettersp]

I have a 5 gallon batch of cider fermenting. 5 gallons of apple juice. S04 yeast. And yeast nutrients used. Temp of 67 for fermenting.
I started it a little over a week ago and the air lock activity has slowed down significantly. My question is I only have the one 5 gal carboy atm and wonder how long I should leave in till I bottle? Also how do you bottle cider, Is it diff from beer? Any other tips would be appreciated. I want to have this ready for a party on march 6th

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Fettersp, As when you brew beer, active fermentation is only the first step in the fermentation process and you need to allow the yeast time to clean up after itself after it has completely finished fermenting all the available fermentable sugars. But simply watching the bubbler bubble tells you diddly squat. Do you know the current gravity? Do you know the gravity the cider was at yesterday? Do you know the rate of change of the gravity? How then do you know what the relationship of any activity in the airlock is to the amount of sugar remaining in the carboy? (I'll answer my own question and say you don't). Technically, you have no idea whether all the sugar has been fermented, the yeast has stalled because of stress or other reasons or the process is continuing but too slowly for the CO2 to make any impression on the liquid plug you are using to close the airlock. You need an hydrometer. And if you have one you need to use it. That said, the longer you can keep the cider in the carboy (all other things being equal - including the fact that the carboy needs to be filled right up into the neck) the better the end product will be. Bottling any wine or cider is the last thing you do, and you bottle (in my opinion) at the latest point you can afford if you need time to either backsweeten or carbonate. (Cider, again, in my opinion does not NEED to be carbonated but it often does NEED to be backsweetened to help bring out the apple flavors).

 

[fettersp]

Ok thank you I'm just a little nervous opening up the carboy because of oxidation or adding something bad to the cider when taking hydro meter reading. I just make sure the pump is thoroughly clean and everything will be ok? Also when I get the hydrometer reading do I wait one day or more to take the next one to see if fermentation is done? Also I think I will try to bottle the last week of feb because the party I'm going to is march 6 so plenty of time to bottle carb?