Sweet + sparkling without pasturizing?

Hey guys. Brand new to the website - I absolutely love the amount of information floating around here.

For my very first question:

Is there a method of selecting a yeast that will die off at a reasonable ABV in order to create a sweet sparkling cider through bottle carbing without having to pasturize?

White Labs website

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html

lists "medium" tolerance as 5-10%. Can this be manipulated to provide, say 8%? Then managing SG and bottling on time would (in my ridiculously noobish mind) give you the ability to create a bone simple way to eliminate pasturizing.

Does killing the yeast off with ABV cause off flavours? What are the pros/cons to this approach?

I intend to use PET bottles... is that acceptable?

Thanks guys. I need all the help I can get!

-Scott

brokendownyota said:

Hey guys. Brand new to the website - I absolutely love the amount of information floating around here.

For my very first question:

Is there a method of selecting a yeast that will die off at a reasonable ABV in order to create a sweet sparkling cider through bottle carbing without having to pasturize?

White Labs website

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html

lists "medium" tolerance as 5-10%. Can this be manipulated to provide, say 8%? Then managing SG and bottling on time would (in my ridiculously noobish mind) give you the ability to create a bone simple way to eliminate pasturizing.

Does killing the yeast off with ABV cause off flavours? What are the pros/cons to this approach?

I intend to use PET bottles... is that acceptable?

Thanks guys. I need all the help I can get!

-Scott

Click to expand...

Far too inconsistent to deliver satisfactory results...sorbate, sulfite, backsweeten and force carb in a keg.

brokendownyota said:

Hey guys. Brand new to the website - I absolutely love the amount of information floating around here.

For my very first question:

Is there a method of selecting a yeast that will die off at a reasonable ABV in order to create a sweet sparkling cider through bottle carbing without having to pasturize?

White Labs website

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html

lists "medium" tolerance as 5-10%. Can this be manipulated to provide, say 8%? Then managing SG and bottling on time would (in my ridiculously noobish mind) give you the ability to create a bone simple way to eliminate pasturizing.

Does killing the yeast off with ABV cause off flavours? What are the pros/cons to this approach?

I intend to use PET bottles... is that acceptable?

Thanks guys. I need all the help I can get!

-Scott

Click to expand...

Very dangerous and unpredictable. You're more likely to explode your bottles than anything else.

We don't sulfite our homebrew ciders, we do backsweeten with splenda or one of the other non-fermentable sweeteners. We have had ciders in the bottle for over a year without any spoilage. I don't know about longer than that as they have never lasted longer than that.

454k30 said:

We don't sulfite our homebrew ciders, we do backsweeten with splenda or one of the other non-fermentable sweeteners. We have had ciders in the bottle for over a year without any spoilage. I don't know about longer than that as they have never lasted longer than that.

Click to expand...

Sparkling or still?

Stovetop pasteurization is pretty easy, why don't you get it to the alcohol level you want and then just pasteurize it on the stove?

The problem...stovetop pasteurize, may lose bottles. Don't stovetop pasteurize, may lose bottles. I haven't pasteurized any of mine ever for a couple years. No gushers. No bombs. Done maybe 40+ batches. I get the whole bottle bomb fear and have my procedure of racking carefully and cold crashing and bottling. I don't have a keg and I don't use chems. Just gotta experiment. Not saying there's anything wrong with stovetop but that scares me more about bottle bombs than anything else. Nothing wrong with Pappers technique. Just gotta do it right. I use 1L swingtops and love the practicality of em (3 glasses per bottle!), but hard to stovetop pasteurize them. I age them and give them out and insist they put them in their fridge and I always get my bottles back. That's when the friends get more...when they return my 1L swingtops!

Can I stovetop pasturize in PET bottles?

brokendownyota said:

Can I stovetop pasturize in PET bottles?

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I really don't think so... I have not used them but pretty sure they will melt

brokendownyota said:

Can I stovetop pasturize in PET bottles?

Click to expand...

I doubt it, but pasteurizable PET bottles do exist. http://www.crowncork.com/press_room/press_release.php/20011015

saramc said:

I doubt it, but pasteurizable PET bottles do exist. http://www.crowncork.com/press_room/press_release.php/20011015

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HAHA...thats awesome. Thanks for sharing this article. I visited Abita brewery on a trip to Houston a long time ago. Never was a huge fan, but they always seemed to do things just a little different.

The old world has been making sweet sparkling cider without additional chemicals or stovetop pasteurization for centuries. I think LeBreton posted this originally, so the credit goes to him.

http://www.cider.org.uk/keeving.html