New brewer, first time cider - Brewers Best

[mrschmitt]

I am just about to brew my first cider. I got the Brewers Best, Cider House Select Raspberry Lime kit. I have a couple of questions.
1. It says to only ferment it for 6 or 7 days. I do have a hydrometer and I can check the reading to see if fermentation is complete but everything I have read, with regards to beer at least says to leave it in the fermenter longer than what the kit says, always. Should I be leaving it in the fermenter longer?
2. I'm assuming that it bottle conditions at room temperature for 2 weeks? Once again, is longer better?
3. Once it is bottle conditioned does it need to go in the fridge, or is room temperature okay. I have limited fridge space right now and trying to fit 60 more bottles of cider in all at once is tricky.

Just trying to make the best product that I can in the end. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much
Matt

 

[Brian77095]

Good luck on your brew!

1. If you are bottling you want to make sure your FG is stable. Ie you get the same reading for a few days. At that point you can bottle but, you certainly don't have to. You can leave it in there to age or you could rack to a secondary if you need the primary. Read the other threads in the Cider area. The sticking is a great read.

2. Well room temperature is a relative term. Right now in the middle of summer my house is 80F. I am sure your's is much cooler. After 2 weeks you can try it see if it is how you like it.

3. If you are going to leave them at room temp you want to make sure the fg is final before you bottle. If you back sweeten you will want to read the thread about stove top pasteurization.

I am betting your problem will be like mine. You will start sampling after two weeks and in 3 or 4 months it will start to really get good and, you will only have a couple bottles left LOL.

Good luck.

 

[Maylar]

That kit says it'll finish at 1.004 or below. You need to wait until the SG is stable, like the instructions say. There's no advantage to waiting longer than required, whether that's 6 days or a month. But certainly there's no penalty for waiting a bit longer, either.

The time to bottle condition depends mostly on temperature and yeast, 2 weeks at room temp is typical. Once the sugar has been converted, additional time doesn't change anything.