When to bottle?

[AMac]

Hello, everyone

This past sunday was day 16 for my first batch of cider (1 gallon trader Joe's cider + D47 + yeast nutrient kept at ~60-65°F), and fermentation had slowed down to one bubble every 6 seconds or so. As a consequence of me and my boyfriend's impatience, we decided that was the best time to move the cider to our second jug. After leaving a good amount of precipitated yeast in the old jug, there was quite a bit of headspace in our new container, pictured here. Our SG reading was 1.006, if I'm reading it right, after a starting SG of 1.054. I was concerned this was too high to try to back carbonate, so we left it to finish fermenting what it could (despite it tasting great!)

Our plan was to let it finish any sugar left in it, but now, 4 days later, we have yet to get a single bubble from the airlock, or even have the airlock liquid shift to indicate gas production inside. Im not sure if this is due to the excessive headspace making any produced gasses accumulate rather than bubble out, or if our fermentation is truly done.
I plan to take another SG reading today, but was concerned about introducing oxygen, and the nasty effects of oxidation.
Essentially, should I just wait longer for more bubbles/another SG reading, or go for it today and try to bottle if it's closer to 1.000?

Edit: after moving the jug to our kitchen table last night, we are getting bubbles every 18 seconds, but the question still stands regarding whether to wait for bottling!

 

[cswis86]

1.006 is a reasonable finishing gravity for a cider. I think it's safe to bottle given that it's been fermenting for almost 3 weeks so go for it! You're probably just noticing more bubbles now because moving the jug agitated some CO2 out of solution.

 

[doublejef]

1.006 seems quite high to me. It generally goes down to 1.000 or even lower so be carefull. When you rack and transfert you slow down fermentation because you remove most off the yeast cells but you don't stop it. Be sure to have a read on the density if you do plan to bottle it and if it has move down from 1.006, it is obviously not finished.

 

[AzOr]

1.006 seems quite high to me. It generally goes down to 1.000 or even lower so be carefull. When you rack and transfert you slow down fermentation because you remove most off the yeast cells but you don't stop it. Be sure to have a read on the density if you do plan to bottle it and if it has move down from 1.006, it is obviously not finished.

Yeah that. I’ve never had a cider finish that high. It’s always between .098-1.00
I usually backsweeten to 1.006