Hard Cider Storage

I have a bunch of quart canning jars. Could I store hard cider in these jars with lids and new rings for 6 months or so?

Otherwise I’m going to have to start drinking a lot of beer and save the bottles. A 12 pack of a good craft brew is not much more expensive than 12 empty beer bottles plus shipping!

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Liquor keeps for years. Most cider is not good until it sits for 6 months.

What about the pressure for any left over fermentation blowing up the canning jars?

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It could happen for sure but I let the fizz settle down before I bottle it. The alcohol concentrations kills yeast in the bottles. As your aware co2 and alcohol are by products of the yeast feeding on the sugar. Mason jars are meant to handle pressure so if you let the carbon dioxide slow down before you bottle it things should be ok.

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If properly sanitized I don’t see any reason that you couldn’t use jars to store cider, but I would really recommend beer bottles because the results would be much more predictable. Just put the word out to your friends that you want some empty non-screwtop bottles. If your friends are anything like mine you will have more than you need in short order.

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Ozymandias ,
Grolsh bottles would be good ones to use. I have a bunch of old pop and beer bottles I use but they require a capper. Caps that I use are fairly inexpensive. They are something like these https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Beer-Count-Metal-Bottle/dp/B019ZQN4Y8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472395651&sr=8-2&keywords=bottle+Caps. This is similar to the capper I use Amazon.com

I have used a little of everything and within their limitations they all work. When I bottle now it is off of a keg setup so it is really just a question of whether the vessel can hold pressure or not. (some of the cider I have made has been uncarbonated and is fine in a regular corked bottle.

The reason I like beer bottles is that with a little help they are effectively free. With other bottle types I typically want the bottle back and that makes it harder to give them away.

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Are you trying to free up space in fermenters or carboys for more cider? There also isn’t much wrong with leaving a cider in a carboy for a few months. It isn’t uncommon for folks to leave beer and especially wine in a carboy for over 3 months. I have done it with beers to condition out diacetyl.

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