Sparkling cider in keg w/o force carbing.

So, I have 5 gallons of cider that I fermented recently. I used Kirkland natural apple juice from Costco and some Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast that I had washed from a pumpkin ale I brewed in the Fall. Once it fermented down to about 1.009, I racked it into a corny and sealed it up to let it age a bit. I have several pin lock kegs but have yet to put my serving system together so I currently have no way of force carbing. We are working on buying a house at the moment and I have decided to take a temporary hiatus from spending money on brewing equipment. I won't be buying anything for brewing (other than little odds & ends if needed) until we are actually in the house.

I had read a while back about fermenting in cornies and have been planning on giving it a go when I get back to brewing. I burped the gas disconnect the day after racking to purge the air from the headspace and noticed that there seemed to already be a good deal of pressure built up. My thought is that if I leave it to age for the next 2-3 months, I may end up with a naturally sparkling cider without having to really do anything extra to it. I figure I will experiment with it and see how well it works.

I usually naturally carb in kegs as well but use c02 to keep the pressure up. The first few glasses will be cloudy (unless you cut your dip tub) and have a lot of foam. It will work for a while but as you lose pressure your cider will go flat and I don't think there is enough pressure to get it all out.

I plan on dispensing it only when I have my keezer built once we are in our house. Mainly this is coming about due to the fact that I decided to delay building my kegging setup until we have our house purchase squared away. I figure since I plan on fermenting my beer in kegs in the near future and therefore will have cut diptubes, I will see how well it works out for a mildly sparkling cider. The way I am looking at it, if it gets me to my desired carbonation level, great; if not, I'll finish it by force carbing.

In my experience straight apple juice has always fermented dry no matter what yeast I use. I have seen it go to .998 with Safale S04. I am guessing your ferment is still under way. It only takes about .003-.004 gravity points to get to about 3 volumes CO2, so keep an eye on the pressure. Since a corny can hold over 100 psi you should be ok, but better to err on the side of caution.

I will probably put together a pressure gauge to attach to the gas disconnect to do just that. I will need that anyway for the cony fermenters. I hate not brewing, so these little experiments/projects should get me by until we are in the house and I can get my brewery set back up!