To Rack or Not to Rack

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sfbayjay

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Hi all! After brewing a number of successful beers over the last year, I'm in the middle of fermenting my first hard cider.

I started with 4 gallons of Mott's "Natural" apple juice (100% juice, pasteurized, unfiltered, no preservatives, no vitamin C added). OG of juice = 1.051.

Pitched Safale S-04 into well-aerated juice (vigorously shook juice bottles after partially pouring into fermenter, resulting in a nice foamy environment). Rehydrated S-04 per Fermentis' instructions and pitched.

Fermenting now for 11 days at about 65 degrees (water bath with frozen water bottles).

Recipe for SWMBO raspberry cider says to rack to secondary at 10 days and add 2 lbs raspberries to secondary after a 10 min soak in near-boiling water to sanitize the berries.

Here's the thing: Took a gravity reading just now and I'm at 1.017. I'm planning to bottle this stuff and I suspected it would get down to around 1.000 or even a little lower based on everything I've read here.

I still have a LITTLE bit of airlock activity on the primary now, but not much.

So: should I rack to secondary now and add raspberries, or wait and see if the gravity continues to drop. I'm getting ready to leave on vacation tomorrow for 10 days. So either it's rack onto the berries tonight or wait 'till I get back.

Any suggestions much appreciated as I'm a total cider nOOb!
 
Forgot to mention -- my primary is being done in a plastic "Ale Pale" bucket. Planning to use glass carboy for secondary, as I've heard glass will help to prevent cider from turning to vinegar. I don't suspect an extra 10 days in plastic bucket would hurt, though, if the conclusion here is to wait before racking to secondary...
 
If you are leaving for 10 days, my recommendation would be to leave it in the primary until you return. Judging from your recipe it doesn’t sound like it’s done. Leaving it in for a total of 21 days should be safe. Cider is rather forgiving in long fermentation periods, and many people keep the hard cider on its lees for longer than that. My only concern for you is that it won’t be able to sustain the temperature you’ve been maintaining. If you’ve been fermenting at 65F and you can keep your house at about 70F then you should be fine.
 
A quick update on this:

I waited until I was back from vacation to rack the cider to secondary.

Measured gravity after 24 days in primary was 1.000. Nice! Only problem: at this point the cider was still very murky -- can I expect it to clear up with time?

Racked to glass secondary after 29 total days and added 2 lbs of raspberries per recipe. Getting a bit of airlock activity now as the raspberry sugars are fermenting.

Will post another update later...
 
It will clear up after time. Also keep in mind that it will look darker and less clear in a carboy. You can do a low-end turbidity test in a small tube (if you use a cylinder for your hydrometer that works great) by holding it up against a clean sheet of white paper in a well lit area. That will give you a good reference for color. Shine a white light from the top and check for "floaties". I probably got a little overboard there but it's good for keeping track of your ciders and how they turn out.

Anyway...adding the raspberries will naturally start the fermentation again because of the new sugars introduced to the cider. If you want to clear the cider you should rack it off of the raspberries after that 10 day period in the secondary. I bet you're thinking "I have to buy another carboy?", well...no, you could always try to do some juggling to put it in your primary while you clean your secondary then transfer it back. The ideal scenario would be if you had your fruit inside a nylon bag so you could pull it out. However if you get into homebrewing I can tell you that buying another carboy will be well worth it. Especially if you like to bulk age your ciders/meads.
 
+1 to Teromous,
You want to rack away from the fruit between 1 and 2 weeks, for me shorter is better. (I'm not a fruit kind of guy).
I do like that your recipe calls for it after primary fermentation. The massive C02 expulsion wastes much of what people are looking for in primary.
When I add fruit, it is in the primary (bucket) once I hit my target racking SG.
I gently stir things up, add the fruit, and rack when I'm back to my target. Which is usually 5 to six days.
For me it is more than enough time to ferment the sugar and get the flavour I'm looking for, which is minimal, a hint, or less.
 
Thanks for the replies so far guys. At this point, cider has been in secondary with fruit added for about 9 days. I'm about ready to rack the cider to another carboy to get it off the raspberries. Planning to take SG this evening while racking.

Question is: how long to wait after racking off the berries before bottling? I was thinking about leaving it for another week to be sure fermentation of any fruit sugars has finished and to see if things clear up at all (still a bit murky). I'm planning to carbonate naturally (prime with dextrose) and age in bottles.

Thoughts? Thanks!
 
Normally I would wait until it was cleared. I take a flashlight and look at it in the dark to see how clear it is.
If I can read a magazine through it, with the flashlight and me in front, it's as clear as it's going to get.
One point is that some ciders just will not clear depending on the juice added.
My clearing time is usually one month to three.
You did not bump it up with sugar or honey, but the fruit may have added some proteins, etc that could extend the clearing. I would recommend at least a month, and consider clarifier's if it's not clearing on its own. But that would mean yet another racking.

Is an extended clearing / bulk ageing time required. No.
It does help the flavours blend, and keeps sediment's in the bottle to a minimum when serving.

If that's not a priority, then its not a problem.
 
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