When is cider aged best?

[Extralike]

Hello,
I want to start aging some cider in my dorm room (I'm legal no worries). Because of this lack of space I want to use a small 5 Litre glass jug I have as a fermentor and I want to be able to make as many batches as I can, so I was thinking about fermenting for 2-3 weeks, then backsweeten and bottle straight away, letting the aging happen in the bottle conditioning stage (freeing the glass fermentor for one more batch).

My question is - is it wise? Is fermenting, then bottling right after fermentation's complete and letting the bottle sit for 2- 3 months wise? What are people's thoughts on this procedure?

 

[hunter_le five]

Aging in the bottle is perfectly fine.

Just make sure if you back-sweeten with something sugary (sugar, juice, etc) that you have neutralized the yeast. Otherwise, fermentation will start again in the bottles and may cause exploding bottles.

An alternative is to use a non-sugar sweetener such as stevia-based products.

 

[TopherM]

I find that my average ABV ciders (5-6%) typically peak at about 3-4 months. Of course, they are typically gone before then!

 

[MindenMan]

^^^+1 Cider will bottle age just fine, that is how I do mine. In my experience, (probably just my opinion), longer is better to a point. What I mean is aging time is related to ABV and final gravity. A higher ABV cider will need to age longer for two main reasons; when a cider is fermented dry it takes months longer for the flavor to re-develop to reduce the alcohol "burn", and a sweet cider when bottled needs age to not taste "syrupy". I have a sparkling hard cider I bottled in May of 2013 with a very high ABV, and three months ago, it was still alcohol hot. More aging is to come.
Sorry for the long post. From what I can gather, Coke is available in 2 liter bottles in Tel Aviv, and 2 liter PET bottles are perfect fermenters so you are only limited by space it appears, not by volume of one fermenter. YMMV

 

[Extralike]

From what I can gather, Coke is available in 2 liter bottles in Tel Aviv, and 2 liter PET bottles are perfect fermenters so you are only limited by space it appears, not by volume of one fermenter. YMMV

I was under the impression plastic non alcholic bottles are bad as fermentors because the reactions could leak chemicals from the plastic, that's why I thought I'm limited to my 5 litre glass jar I have. Am I wrong?

 

[MarkKF]

The first couple years I aged in the bottle up to a year or more. Lately I've left it in the secondary almost as long. Have not noticed a difference. What's the general opinion - bottle age or carboy age?


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[MindenMan]

The bulk aged, bottle aged discussion is somewhat of a conundrum. Both camps will strongly suggest their method is better, I believe. If you have the equipment to keg, then your answer is probably easy to guess. If you don't keg, you might be on the fence about it. Bulk aged, or bottle aged in my experience, aren't different enough in flavor or mouth feel to tell any difference. Since I don't keg, bottle aging works best for me for long term storage. If I want a bottle of cider or two, I don't have to wait an additional three weeks before the batch gets carbed. If you are interested in making applejack, I have many posts discussing just that. Applejack, in my opinion does get better with age, the caveat being a 10% ABV hard cider only makes one 12 oz bottle per gallon, and a year to wait for one bottle is difficult to do. That is why I never make just one gallon at a time.

 

[bernardsmith]

I was under the impression plastic non alcholic bottles are bad as fermentors because the reactions could leak chemicals from the plastic, that's why I thought I'm limited to my 5 litre glass jar I have. Am I wrong?

For long term aging I agree that unless the plastic has been designed for alcohol storage or fermentation then you may not want to age the wine in "plastic" but PET I think may be relatively stable and not leach any chemicals... I think in the USA Better Bottles are PET and they are designed for fermentation, but that said, if you are making 5 L of cider and you age it say 3 months, I am not sure that the possible other problem with plastic, namely, its permeability to air, will be a concern either. You will likely drink the cider long before it will have oxidized

 

[Byeast]

My question is - is it wise? Is fermenting, then bottling right after fermentation's complete and letting the bottle sit for 2- 3 months wise? What are people's thoughts on this procedure?

Hello, thought I'd chime in.

You can make a good cider with short aging times. Now, two recommendations:

1. A beer yeast (ale yeast) 'requires' less aging (as MindenMan pointed out, with higher abv and wine yeasts you run into alcohol heat).

2. Your cider will probably be cloudy after such a short time, even if you use fining agents and pectic enzyme. This is an issue of visual appearance and won't make the cider taste off. Still, if it's something you want to surely avoid, longer aging is the way to go.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

... then backsweeten and bottle straight away, letting the aging happen in the bottle conditioning stage ... My question is - is it wise?

Bottle conditioning means putting fizz into your cider ... carbonating.
NO, it is not wise! ... by your description above you will have hand grenades ... and a hell of a mess. Backsweetening is *not* priming.

Bottle conditioning is complicated.
The easiest way to manage what you have suggested is to monitor the pressure in the bottles on a twice a day basis (a different, unopened bottle each time), and then stick them in the refrigerator PERMANENTLY when you think they are about 3/4 of the way to the amount of carbonation you want ... the cold will stop the fermentation and pressurization.
And DON'T miss a checkpoint ... or ...