Bottle carbing questions - lees, aging

[Tantalar]

a few weeks back I bottled some apple cider, cyser, and apple wine all varying between 5% and 10.5% ABV. I hoped that they would bottle carb and it seems that all of them have to varying degrees. The thing is... there is significant deposits of lees on the bottom of the bottles. I have read that lees can be bad for a developing drink because of the off flavors. I am concerned that they will ruin the taste of the home brew Is this still a thing to worry about?

Would it be possible to bottle carb in the 1 gallon glass fermentation jugs, and then rack and bottle? I have read extensively about possibilities of bottle carbing without the lees in the bottle but have not come up with any results other than what I did. Yeah I know force carb... but im living in a college dorm here and I don't have any money

Also I was wondering how long can I age this stuff? I hear that the higher the ABV the more likely it is to survive for a long time. As long as it is very securely bottled I didn't think it would go bad but I have heard otherwise. Can anyone give me a definitive answer on this?

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

I'm assuming that everything you've bottled has been primed for carbonation? The reason I ask is because priming for carbonation causes some lees to form, and there is no way around that.

But, sometimes lees form simply because the cider/wine/mead was bottled too early and the sediment dropped out in the bottle. If the cider isn't clear when you bottle it, when it does clear the sediment will drop to the bottom of the bottle as lees.

If you waited 8-12 months before bottling, and the cider was completely clear, then the lees are a product of bottle priming. If you rushed to bottle it, well, that's the cause. It won't harm you, and it won't ruin the beverage. It'll just be in there.

 

[Tantalar]

I aged it for about 3 months. A lot of them were fairly clear. I definitely will look to age my newer batches of cider for much longer. The thing that I figured mattered most was that the final gravity was around 1.000 and they definitely were very very close. I bottled some at 1.01 though. I read that you could do this instead of adding priming sugar. I used mott's apple juice ranging from 8-12 ounces per gallon of cider.

Is it better to age while they are non-carbonated and in the jug or better to age when they are bottled? That is, if I leave almost no air space between the airlock and the cider.

 

[Yooper]

They'll clear in the bottle, you'll just have more sediment than if you bottled them already clear.

Bottling when the cider isn't done (like at 1.010) might or might not work for you. If it finishes sooner than expected, it won't carbonate. If it finishes lower than expected (like at .990), the bottles could blow up. I'd rather ferment until finished, then add the correct amount of priming sugar for carbonation. That would be predictable and safer.

Bottling any cider before it's finished would explain why you have so much sediment in the bottle. If it's not finished, it definitely wouldn't be clear.