Draught vs. bottled cider

Good afternoon,

I have just been given a nice 25l pressurised keg and was wondering what you guys think of using them to cab my cider instead of naturally conditioning them in a bottle. Is the taste too different? When should I consider moving it from my airlocked bucket to the keg?
If there is anything else you think I should please enlighten me!

ziggy203 said:

Good afternoon,

I have just been given a nice 25l pressurised keg and was wondering what you guys think of using them to cab my cider instead of naturally conditioning them in a bottle. Is the taste too different? When should I consider moving it from my airlocked bucket to the keg?
If there is anything else you think I should please enlighten me!

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Force carbing gives a different carbonation than bottle conditioning, somewhat lighter and less lingering. Both are great when it comes to cider though. Kegging is useful since you can stabilize your cider with sorbate and then back sweeten without having to mess with unfermentable sugars and pasteurizing bottles.

You can transfer to the keg anytime after fermentation stops. Be sure to purge all air out of the keg with CO2 before the transfer.

There is an entire forum in the beer section about kegging if you want more info.

This is my first year kegging my cider. So far I like it better than bottling. I can't honestly say I've noticed and negative impact on flavor. I only age mine for a few months though. I do at least 1 month in primary and 1-1.5 months in secondary, back-sweeten, keg, then cold crash and serve.

I think kegging gives you a lot more flexibility. I don't like a lot of carbonation, so I set my pressure prety low. If I change my mind I can easily adjust it in a few days. I can also bottle from my keg using a bottle filler that hooks into my tap if I want to save and age a few bottles.