Kegging a cider

[Redpappy]

I’m looking into long term... 3 months to 12 months of storage. I am wondering on how well it keep. Temps will range from 6F to 70F.

process:

bought 5 gals of krogers (store brand)AJ.
fermented at roughly 68 with Safcider. ( fermented in basement, and I believe the temp was around 68)
Transfered to keg around week 3.
added co2 and purged around 3-5 times.
co2 is set to 14 psi.
Cider keg is sitting in basement with temp around 70F right now.
I did back sweetening with 2 cans FAJ.

this ismy first attempt of kegging my cider. I am wanting a keg of other than beer to be around. Trial and error kind of thing.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Did you stabilize with anything before back sweetening? I would be a little worried about over carbonation since the FAJC will kick off a second fermentation.

Hope it works for you though as I'll be in the same boat as soon as I get off my a$$ and ferment some of my juice. Cheers!

 

[Redpappy]

Did you stabilize with anything before back sweetening? I would be a little worried about over carbonation since the FAJC will kick off a second fermentation.

Hope it works for you though as I'll be in the same boat as soon as I get off my a$$ and ferment some of my juice. Cheers!

Yes, I had stabilized before back sweetening... my original thought was to just to use the carb to push, but since I have an extra linE available... granted it’s not carbing up much due to temp. But wasn’t looking for a sparkling cider..

 

[ITV]

I have been kegging my cider for years. I usually have one cider on tap along with 3 beers. I found that aging my cider (6 months) greatly improves the flavor. My blueberrry cider that aged for 8 months scored a 41.5 in a local competition (3rd place). The difference is that I put in approx 1.5 lbs sugar to bump up the ABV and use either frozen cherries or bluberrys to make either a cherry or bluberry cider. Your method is what I have been doing with sucess.

The cider will carb up mainly when you chill it down under CO2, the pressure of CO2 will determine on how much carbonation that you want. I wasn't looking for a sparkling cider, but I have carbed my cherry cider to sparkling (mainly because I don't have seperate secondary CO2 regulators) and it won 3rd place in a local homebrew competition.

My main problem lately with aging my ciders for 6 months is that the cider keg kicks before the next batch is ready.