I have some 'sugar carbonated' cider with sediment in the bottom of each bottle. I would like to transport the cider via car to another location (for a party).
Is it likely that moving the cider will disturb the sediment?
If the sediment is disturbed, how long will I need to leave it at the new location before the sediment will re-settle? (Hours / Days / Weeks)
What do other cider makers do if they decide to transport home brew cider for consumption?
Here is a neat article about the Beer clarification process: Clarification of Beer: Advanced Brewing .
The article is about beer, but they derive a rough formula estimating it will take about 88 hours for yeast to settle 1 meter in beer. If the the yeast is only disturbed to a height of .1 meters is should take around 8 to 9 hours to settle. Cider is less dense than beer so it will settle slightly faster (maybe 7 - 8 hours). So the less it is disturbed the faster it will settle.
The article also has some suggestions to speed it up. Warmer liquids are less dense so the sediment settles faster. You could also use g-force to force the sediment to the bottom of the bottle, but that could end poorly...
Depends on how well settled the sediment is to begin with. The key is to keep the bottles upright so that the surface of the liquid remains in the confined space in the neck. Assuming normal flat roadways, you should be fine.
How long it will take for the bottles to settle back down if they do get stirred up is subject to how stirred up they get and how dense the material getting stirred up is.
I'd expect to let them rest a couple hours for the best chance of "re-clearing" but that's totally subjective. Depends on too many factors to really know for sure.
I make bottle conditioned beers all the time and have never (touch wood) had a problem with them clouding up during transportation. Unless you are hauling the over dirt tracks in the back of a truck you should have no problems.
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