Labradork
Active Member
Folks,
I just had a one-gallon Carlo Rossi bottle of peach cyser explode on me last night. Literally, "on me" - I was 3 feet away and it was the loudest thing I have ever heard. I'm pretty sure I lost some hearing in one ear. I was covered hot cyser and broken glass and a little shell-shocked by it, but no major injuries to report. The SWMBO was not happy about the mess the bottle-bomb made of the kitchen and dining room. Every surface within 20 feet had sweet, sticky cyser on it, and even after vacuuming and shampooing the carpets we're still finding shards of glass.
This was caused by my trying to use the Stove-Top Pasteurization method. Fermentation had finished on the cyser last week, I primed it with some peach nectar and a little more honey, and sealed it up for a few days. Four days later I opened one bottle, found the carbonation to be a little light, and set it aside for one more day. That following day I went to pasteurize it. I had heated a stock pot of water to about 170 F, turned off the heat, and set the jug of cyser in it. After ten minutes I took out that first jug of cyser, set it aside on the counter, heated the stock water back up, then put in the second jug. Five minutes later, that first jug blew up. My second jug, which was in the pot getting heated at the time, is fine. It surprises me that the first bottle exploded not while being heated, but while sitting off to the side cooling down.
My question is this: I am more than a little hesitant to use the stove-top method again, especially since the remaining bottle has had one additional day to carbonate. At the same time, I am reluctant to use campden tablets, as I hear they leave an off taste which can take months to go away. Do I have another option?
Labradork
I just had a one-gallon Carlo Rossi bottle of peach cyser explode on me last night. Literally, "on me" - I was 3 feet away and it was the loudest thing I have ever heard. I'm pretty sure I lost some hearing in one ear. I was covered hot cyser and broken glass and a little shell-shocked by it, but no major injuries to report. The SWMBO was not happy about the mess the bottle-bomb made of the kitchen and dining room. Every surface within 20 feet had sweet, sticky cyser on it, and even after vacuuming and shampooing the carpets we're still finding shards of glass.
This was caused by my trying to use the Stove-Top Pasteurization method. Fermentation had finished on the cyser last week, I primed it with some peach nectar and a little more honey, and sealed it up for a few days. Four days later I opened one bottle, found the carbonation to be a little light, and set it aside for one more day. That following day I went to pasteurize it. I had heated a stock pot of water to about 170 F, turned off the heat, and set the jug of cyser in it. After ten minutes I took out that first jug of cyser, set it aside on the counter, heated the stock water back up, then put in the second jug. Five minutes later, that first jug blew up. My second jug, which was in the pot getting heated at the time, is fine. It surprises me that the first bottle exploded not while being heated, but while sitting off to the side cooling down.
My question is this: I am more than a little hesitant to use the stove-top method again, especially since the remaining bottle has had one additional day to carbonate. At the same time, I am reluctant to use campden tablets, as I hear they leave an off taste which can take months to go away. Do I have another option?
Labradork
