In the homebrewing world there is a term “racking” that gets used.  Racking is the process of changing your brew over to a new bottle or jug, usually the second to last destination for the hooch.  Once it its new bottle you should then age the booze.

Up until now I’ve spoken little about aging your homebrew simply because I didn’t do it?  Why?  I’m impatient, easy as that.  This impatience combined with a “its good enough” attitude lead me to simply guzzle my hard cider as soon as it was in a clean jug.

It was in fact pretty good, if not a little harsh.  It definitely needed to “mellow” but I couldn’t be bothered with that, I had inebriatedness to be.  I would still be going Gung-Ho into this haphazard way of consuming my homemade hooch if it wasn’t for me “losing” a gallon of cider off my last batch.

About a month after I had racked the cider one of my roommates told me about the  jug in our downstairs refrigerator, over joyed at this present I quickly seized it and drug it upstairs that weekend for sharing around the fire pit.

I poured a glass and low and behold it was smooth.  I mean smooooooth.  The taste wasn’t harsh at all, the flavor more apple-y then before.  The cinnamon worked harmoniously rather then simply additionally.  It was perfect.  Everyone agreed.

Aging seems to be somewhat of a variable, but from what I’ve read, and from personal experience, one month seems to be the minimum amount of time to let your brew sit before consumption.

The temperature for aging should be low, but not necessarily cold.  Below 70F seems to be the agreed figure, with 50F being ideal.