Aging Cider

[Libationguy]

I began fermenting a cider at the beginning of October and my hydrometer reading is showing me fully fermented. I am going to use potassium metabisulfite to stop my yeast, then back sweeten and bottle. The cider is currently untouched in a 5 gallon carboy.

My Question: I have limited fermentation space and want to move on to other things. If I arrest the yeast, backsweeten and bottle, will the cider continue to develop in the bottle (ie: like wine) or have I stopped any continuing development (ie: spirits). Also, my choices for longer storage would either be room temperature (75F) or refrigerator temp (42F). I would appreciate any suggestions.

As a final thought, I am interested in trying a mead at some point. Would the same behavior apply to a mead that applies to a cider regarding development/aging.

Thanks.

[ziggy]

I think that you would want to drink cider as fresh as possible. Mead definitely ages and develops for a long time.

[humpadilo]

I made a cider that turned out really good about three to four months ago. I found a bottle I. M fridge that has just been sitting there. I tried it and it was ok but nowhere near as good as it was originally. I don't know how long they should be kept, but about 4 months was to long for mine.

[Bad Goat Brewing]

I think that you would want to drink cider as fresh as possible. Mead definitely ages and develops for a long time.

A lot of ciders age really well. edwort's apfelwein starts hitting its stride at 6 months, and continues to improve For at least another 6 months.2

[spiderwrangler]

Ciders are typically lower in ABV than most things you would want to hang onto and age. I suppose it may be beneficial to some degree depending on the style. I have experienced in my own cider that keeping it a long time does not benefit, as it developed a V-8/beef broth flavor after longer than a year (although that was within the first two years of brewing for me).

[TheDarkSide]

I just had a common cider that I did back in Sept using the same procedure you used and it was great. It may at some point start to lose something but I did just get a silver for it at the Upper Mississippi mashout last weekend so I haven't reached that point yet. It came in around 5.2% ABV. I store mine in the basement which is pretty cool, especially Oct - Apr.