Anyone ever batch pasturize wine BEFORE bottling?

I read a thread that advised to pasteurize the entire batch of wine at 140 degrees for just 5 minutes in order to kill yeast and make it safe to back sweeten without Potassium sorbate. The claim was that it didn't effect flavor or cause any bottle breaking problems, cork issues due to pressure changes, etc.

Anyone ever try this? What were the results? How did the wine age?

Im thinking of trying this for an apple wine I'd like to back sweeten but I've been scared off of potassium sorbate due to too many claims about bad flavors.

First, you'll have to transfer the wine to the kettle because you should never heat a carboy unless they're designed for it. Assuming that you have a pot large enough for a batch of wine (perhaps a beer brewing kettle) and that it's either seasoned aluminum or stainless steel, you'll still have to worry about oxygenating the wine. If you can avoid all of that, then it would be an interesting experiment. Maybe take a 6 gallon batch and split it into two threes, one pasteurized and one with enough potassium sorbate for three gallons.

Here is a Pasturization chart. 140 is not good enough.

Temperature Time Pasteurization Type
63ºC (145ºF) 30 minutes Vat Pasteurization
72ºC (161ºF) 15 seconds High temperature short time Pasteurization (HTST)
89ºC (191ºF) 1.0 second Higher-Heat Shorter Time (HHST)
90ºC (194ºF) 0.5 seconds Higher-Heat Shorter Time (HHST)
94ºC (201ºF) 0.1 seconds Higher-Heat Shorter Time (HHST)
96ºC (204ºF) 0.05 seconds Higher-Heat Shorter Time (HHST)
100ºC (212ºF) 0.01 seconds Higher-Heat Shorter Time (HHST)
138ºC (280ºF) 2.0 seconds Ultra Pasteurization (UP)

I actually was thinking the same, batch pasteurizing.

A thought would be to use a heating coil, or two to heat up the wine as it ran through the coil.

Put coil 'one' in a kettle full of hot water, actively heating it. This will be the "preheat coil" probably a smaller coil then the next one. Get a thermometer on the coil output. You will want your wine as close to your desired temp as possible. Perhaps a couple degrees plus or minus.

Your second coil will be in a second kettle, holding it at the desired temp. This will be the primary pasteurizing coil.

Now siphon through the coils, or pump. Or just gravity, each container lower than the last.

I think that the setup would be a touch tricky to set up, but once done would be ever useful for all your pasteurizing needs. The thinner the diameter the coil the faster you would want to push the wine, but the quicker the change in temp would occur.

I also think that during the setup, you would have to time it all out with some water or colored water, to time the transition. Perhaps a piece of clear tube before each coil and at the very end to see and time the flow.

I bet you could make due with one coil though, just to see how it goes. I don't know how fast you would want to cool your wine back down though. Perhaps immediately? That would add at least one more coil. Of course this setup would be useful for other beverages as well.


This is so far just a harebrained idea that I have been considering. Thought that it may add to the OP's situation.

I bottle mine, leave the cork out. Place the bottles in my sink and pour boiling water into the sink until the water level is 3/4 the way up the bottle. Use a thermometer to measure internal temperature and wait until it reaches 140. Worked great for me, im sure there is a better way, but this was cheap and easy.