Ippymiss.....Don't be so nervous...[easy for me to say]
Your Cider looks pretty clear...you might be just as well to carefully siphon it off, leave as much sediment behind and prime [if you want it fizzy] and bottle it now.
OR.....
If you have enough airlocks and want it to settle out more...you could age it a bit longer in some gallon jugs and wine bottles with airlocks for awhile.
Don't be too impressed with the flavor at this point...I personally don't think it tastes good till it gets a bit of fizz to it.
The color isn't all that bad....mine was lighter color this time. The juice I used this time contained Ascorbic Acid...that probably helped with oxidation....maybe some of your juices didn't have that in it....I always think the frozen juices are browner. Once your Cider is in a glass the color won't be all that brownish.
Right now I have some apple wine that I want to Sparkle..it is darker than normal...the apple juice was from my own apples and were very red, the juice was pinkish...so am not surprised about the color of the juice...I think next time I will add Ascorbic Acid to my homemade juice when I mix up a batch of Sparkling Apple Wine.....might preserve the color.
I add Ascorbic Acid to all my fruit wines at bottling, it is suppose to hold the colors...many people don't do this and I haven't seen it mentioned in many books...it was listed in recipes from a favorite winemaking book, and I started doing it from the beginning of my winemaking experience and just kept doing it to all the fruit base concoctions I make up, usually do it at bottling....but maybe at the onset of fermentation might not be a bad idea, especially on the Apple Cider and wines.
Keep us Posted on how it is coming along...I don't thin it is gone bad...unless the airlock was off....I see many people with carboys that are only that full...when we first started making wine oftan ours were like that and evreything seemed to have worked out.
Good luck...
