Can somebody tell me their process for store bought juice?
Mine has been in primary for 1 month now and I'm bottling it tomorrow, how long do I age it then before consuming?
Trust me, right now it is not drinkable.
4 months from now you should be much happier. But if you do not like dry cider you need to sweeten it up.
For sweet, still cider:
Once at FG, crystal clear, & no longer dropping sediment for 60 days after last racking I allow the cider to bulk age for at least four months from the date it reached FG. Then I stabilize by adding required k-meta plus potassium sorbate, and I then backsweeten to my desired SG. I do tasting trial at drinking temperature to determine the desired SG. I may choose to backsweeten with simple syrup or thawed apple juice concentrate or a blend of simple syrup/AJC, or even spiced versions. I check after 72 hours to ensure there is no drop on hydrometer. It helps to make sure you use fresh sorbate and add appropriate dosage on k-meta + sorbate. You need k-meta in conjunction with sorbate to prevent refermentation of a dry product. If for some reason I had a refermentation caused by backsweetening & wanted to stop it I would promptly batch pasteurize, otherwise you just let the yeast do their thing and you have a higher ACV than you may have wanted. I opt to wait at least 10 days after stabilizing/backsweetening to bottle & I may even rack one final time (and then bottle when I can). I may rack one final time because I have found that sometimes the backsweetening step yields an small amount of fine lees; hence the 'at least 10 day' wait.
If you do not want to use sorbate, you can batch pasteurize by slowly bringing the cider up to 140F, covered on stovetop, and hold at that heat/covered for 10 minutes. Promptly remove from heat and place in ice bath to cool to room temp, dose with k-meta and proceed with backsweetening.
I will add that once the must has reached FG and until I bottle, I dose every 90 days with 1/8 tsp k-meta (dissolved in a bit of warm cider from the carboy) per 5 gallons to maintain adequate SO2 levels. You can take any guesswork out on the k-meta additions by investing in a SO2 test kit.
If you want dry/sweet and bubbly in a bottle that is a bit more complicated. And remember, if you want sparkling bottled cider never add sorbate.
