Aging cider

I've had my first cider fermenting for a few weeks already, and I'm going to start a new one this weekend with a new recipe. Out of curiosity, what is the longest anyone here has aged a cider? Is it worth bottling some up in wine bottles and letting it sit for a few years, or does it plateau in tastiness after a few months?

I think many people bottle and drink their cider way too quickly. I rarely bottle a cider until it's about 6 months old. I was taught to make cider in the fall and bottle in the spring. Do they continue to improve? Mead, definitely. Cider, I'm not so sure. Just my two cents, but I think most of them peak in 6-12 months.

Back in 2006, my club made about 60 gallons of cider and aged it for 6 months in a Lairds Applejack barrel. When we bottled it, I thought it was a little too bold, so I didn't drink too much of it. When it was about 3 years old, I opened a bottle and it was awesome. I entered it in the National Homebrew Competition and it took a gold in the final round! It's now almost 5 years old and it's still great.

GinKings said:

Back in 2006, my club made about 60 gallons of cider and aged it for 6 months in a Lairds Applejack barrel. When we bottled it, I thought it was a little too bold, so I didn't drink too much of it. When it was about 3 years old, I opened a bottle and it was awesome. I entered it in the National Homebrew Competition and it took a gold in the final round! It's now almost 5 years old and it's still great.

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Jealous much? That sounds great!

I think most folks on here aim to age around 6 months. Mine rarely makes that, I'm a sucker for cider so it goes so quickly around here. That being said, I have a basement which you have to actually go outside to get to and I have stored some away in there from last year. Might crack one open in a few weeks and see how it tastes!

Your method does impact cider's age-ability (is that a word?) Left to its own devices, there is a natural progression from fresh juice -> fermented cider -> vinegar.

Pappers_ said:

Your method does impact cider's age-ability (is that a word?) Left to its own devices, there is a natural progression from fresh juice -> fermented cider -> vinegar.

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ok.. .so what can i change about my method to avoid the progression to vinegar. Isn't vinegar caused by the presence of acetobacter? In my mind,if i bottle and pasteurize a fully fermented still cider/wine it should last indefinitely as long as the sterility is not compromised . (But things in my mind don't always work the way they do in reality) Am i wrong?

Its not going to turn to vinegar if it does not come in contact with aceto bacteria.

The ciders I keg are around 6-7% ABV, and even then I don't tap them until 6 months.
Higher than that I bottle and follow the rule of thumb of 3 months for 5%, and month of every % above that.
So far with proper sanitization, they only taste better with age. Just an overall blending of all the flavours and mellowing of the hot alcohol flavors.

It's the presence of oxygen, not acetobacter, that sends cider off. If you can keep o2 away it will keep for years.

gregbathurst said:

It's the presence of oxygen, not acetobacter, that sends cider off. If you can keep o2 away it will keep for years.

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Word.

I have a question on aging. Currently, I have 3 1.5 gallon ciders that have fermented dry. I have racked off the lees, and currently they are sitting in a cupboard with an airlock to age.

^ is that how you age? I want to let them clear then bottle carb, then pasteurize. Just making sure everything sounds good

I let my dry cider age in bottles. Oldest bottles of my own cider I have is about 1 1/2 years. I don't think I can keep sweet cider longer than 6 months but I think this year I'm going to try...

I made a 5 gallon batch of cider back in 12/2014 and bottled it - I have drank it sporadically - It was very harsh when I first tasted it after a few months and kind of gave up on drinking it (have about a case and half left) - I just opened one last night 10/19/2016 and I can't believe how good it has gotten. Is this normal? Is it ok to drink cider after that long?

Sure. There are a number of flaws that can come up during fermenting that take time to age out. And even a perfect flawless ferment will benefit from some time. With my ciders I find that 4 months turns good to excellent, and 10 months becomes awesome.

There's a quote attributed to Ben Franklin: "Give me yesterday's bread, this day's flesh, and last year's cider".

BTW it's better to start a new thread than to dredge up one that's 5 years old.

Maylar said:

Sure. There are a number of flaws that can come up during fermenting that take time to age out. And even a perfect flawless ferment will benefit from some time. With my ciders I find that 4 months turns good to excellent, and 10 months becomes awesome.

There's a quote attributed to Ben Franklin: "Give me yesterday's bread, this day's flesh, and last year's cider".

BTW it's better to start a new thread than to dredge up one that's 5 years old.

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My bad didn't realize it was so old - was taken here directly from The Google Machine.

dusty1025 said:

ok.. .so what can i change about my method to avoid the progression to vinegar. Isn't vinegar caused by the presence of acetobacter? In my mind,if i bottle and pasteurize a fully fermented still cider/wine it should last indefinitely as long as the sterility is not compromised . (But things in my mind don't always work the way they do in reality) Am i wrong?

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In order to insure you don't get vinegar I add Campden tablets or sodium Metabisulfite (some say to boil the cider It can possibly cloud your cider I prefer the tablets) I use one tablet per gallon of cider shake it then let it set for 24 hours after I add Laveen yeast and let her go I drink it anywhere from 2 months to 1 year after I have a bottle from 2010 I yet o open though

If your cider has a low enough pH and a high enough ABV, it will last years and continue to improve the whole time. Years ago I bottled some high ABV cider that after two years was just starting to get decent enough tasting to drink. Somewhere there is still a botlle of it stashed somewhere and it might be four years old before I drain the last bottle.

Maylar said:

BTW it's better to start a new thread than to dredge up one that's 5 years old.

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I am happy lal12 brought this thread back - I have recently racked some cider which I started back in July with some more Apple Juice & this time cider yeast in October - it's still fermenting & I am wondering if I should use a secondary rack - after reading some of these posts I am finding out that age is a good thing w/ cider

I just drank my last Fall 2012 cider, which was not treated with k-meta at bottle up, and it tasted fine. ABV was 10%-ish and pH 3.8-ish. For the '12 - '14 seasons, I universally didn't use k-meta at bottle up, and have yet to see any of the apple ciders/wines go bad, but all my berry and plum wines from the same years started turning bad circa 2 years of age.

I now treat all with k-meta at bottle up, which seems like a safety margin for ciders, but a necessity for berry/plum wines.

--SiletzSpey

was it stored in the dark, cellar temps, frig.? I'm thinking light and warm temps are the fear.