primary done

[that-dude-rick]

nothing special here, just a gallon of cider and half pound brown sugar. og was ~1.060 before brown sugar.

it's been 6.5 days now since i pitched yeast, activity is very minimal now and fg should be below 1.000 now.

can i rack straight to the secondary carboy? I was told something about degassing it, so should i put it in a large pot/bucket first and then swish a spoon back and forth like this person told me to do before transferring into the secondary?

then there's also the ones to say to leave it on the lees another week before secondary. is this kinda a "to each their own" thing?

 

[Yooper]

You can definitely rack to secondary now, particularly if you've got a lot of sediment. This is no advantage to letting it sit on lees- but a few more days or even a week wouldn't be harmful either.

I would NOT stir or degas, as oxidation will ruin the cider at this point. Whoever told you to do that was either misguided or misunderstood- that is not at all a common or recommended practice.

 

[that-dude-rick]

You can definitely rack to secondary now, particularly if you've got a lot of sediment. This is no advantage to letting it sit on lees- but a few more days or even a week wouldn't be harmful either.

I would NOT stir or degas, as oxidation will ruin the cider at this point. Whoever told you to do that was either misguided or misunderstood- that is not at all a common or recommended practice.

funny thing is he runs a home brew store

alright, secondary it is then. i will do that soon, but also should it still sit out or should it be in the refrigerator?

Ive also heard about adding cinnamon sticks and adding other stuff in secondary. what's some thoughts on this? i also want to back sweeten, should this be done right before bottling?

 

[Yooper]

funny thing is he runs a home brew store

alright, secondary it is then. i will do that soon, but also should it still sit out or should it be in the refrigerator?

Ive also heard about adding cinnamon sticks and adding other stuff in secondary. what's some thoughts on this? i also want to back sweeten, should this be done right before bottling?

It should be kept at room temperature for the next several weeks to clear and finish up. After that, it can be "cold crashed" in the fridge to really clarify it.

I'm not one for spices in my ciders or wines, so someone else will have to answer that.

For sweetening, the cider is stabilized with sorbate and campden (sulfite) once it's completely clear and no longer dropping lees, by racking into a new vessel with the stabilizers. After a few more days, it can be sweetened and left to sit a few more days (to ensure no new fermentation restarts from adding sugar/fermentables), and if it's still stable, it can be bottled.

 

[that-dude-rick]

It should be kept at room temperature for the next several weeks to clear and finish up. After that, it can be "cold crashed" in the fridge to really clarify it.

I'm not one for spices in my ciders or wines, so someone else will have to answer that.

For sweetening, the cider is stabilized with sorbate and campden (sulfite) once it's completely clear and no longer dropping lees, by racking into a new vessel with the stabilizers. After a few more days, it can be sweetened and left to sit a few more days (to ensure no new fermentation restarts from adding sugar/fermentables), and if it's still stable, it can be bottled.

thanks. i'm gonna add this info to a sort of log i'm going to start keeping, so i don't have to search the forums all the time and get mixed info lol. just going to start compiling it all.

i wanted to bottle carbonate, and i have another batch that's 2 days behind this one, so what should i do differently with that one to allow bottle carbonation?

 

[Yooper]

thanks. i'm gonna add this info to a sort of log i'm going to start keeping, so i don't have to search the forums all the time and get mixed info lol. just going to start compiling it all.

i wanted to bottle carbonate, and i have another batch that's 2 days behind this one, so what should i do differently with that one to allow bottle carbonation?

Sweet ciders are easy, carbonated ciders are easy- but a sweet carbonated cider is more of an intermediate/advanced technique. Many who don't have kegging gear will bottle pasteurize for a sweet carbed cider- so check out the sticky at the top of this forum for instructions on that if you want it sweetened and carbonated.

 

[that-dude-rick]

great thanks for the help.

 

[Maylar]

If you're doing one gallon batches your yield will be 8-9 12 oz bottles which most folks have room for in the fridge. Once your cider is carbonated, throwing them into the fridge will stunt further fermentation without the risks associated with pasteurization.

 

[that-dude-rick]

it's in secondary, there's very little fermentation going on which is good. question, i know head space is bad, but home much is acceptable? i have a "one gallon" glass jug that is, in reality, a little more than 1-gallon, so of course the secondary right now has a bit less than a gallon, so i have about 3 or 4 inches between the airlock stopper and the level of the cider. Will this not hurt much? i'm going to leave out of the refrigerator right now to kinda let the fermentation purge some of that air out and then i am going to put in the refrigerator after 3 days.

what are some thoughts on this?

 

[Yooper]

it's in secondary, there's very little fermentation going on which is good. question, i know head space is bad, but home much is acceptable? i have a "one gallon" glass jug that is, in reality, a little more than 1-gallon, so of course the secondary right now has a bit less than a gallon, so i have about 3 or 4 inches between the airlock stopper and the level of the cider. Will this not hurt much? i'm going to leave out of the refrigerator right now to kinda let the fermentation purge some of that air out and then i am going to put in the refrigerator after 3 days.

what are some thoughts on this?

You want the cider to be at the narrowest opening of the carboy/jug. so it does sounds like too much.

Why are you only going to let it sit a few days and then stick it in the fridge? I've never heard of anybody doing that, so I'm very curious.

 

[Maylar]

In a perfect world we would rack to a secondary jug that's just the right size for the volume at hand. Unfortunately, there aren't any 3.2 quart jugs, so racking to a 1 gallon secondary leaves some air space.

I'm fortunate to be able to back fill the head space with CO2, but most cider makers can't do that. The good news is that CO2 is about 4X as heavy as air, so any CO2 that is released in secondary will become a barrier between the cider and the air above. I wouldn't age cider long term that way, but a week or 2 in secondary has never given me any problems.