Full batch pasteurization? Heat up all 5 gallons?

I used p sorbate and campden tabs in my first batch to put the yeasties to sleep before back sweetening and bottling. I am not a huge fan of using extra chemicals, and I swear I can taste them in the bottles.

The thought of pasteurizing individual bottles seems tedious and daunting. Is it possible to heat the entire batch in a boil kettle to the correct pasturizing temp after fermentation, then sweeten and bottle?? Would this have negative impact on the taste?

I tried a search, but couldnt find anything close.

I dont keg, so dont even go there...

The purpose of pasteurizing in individual bottles is to allow for carbonation AND some sweetness.

If you bulk pasteurize you can add sugar, but if carbonation is desired, you will have to do it artificially since pasteurization kills yeast.

Probably gonna lose some ABV as alcohol boils away much lower temps than water.

I would be looking for a still cider, so losing the bubbles is not an issue.

I dont expect much of the abv to evap out at 190. Its not a boil.

davekippen said:

I would be looking for a still cider, so losing the bubbles is not an issue.

I dont expect much of the abv to evap out at 190. Its not a boil.

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Boiling temp of ethanol is 170 deg F (approx)

Ethanol boils at 175 F......not being argumentative, just sayin..........Try it, let us know how it works.

Are you a member of the Red Ledge Brewers?

I type too slow

I thought that you could succesfully heat pasturize at lower than boiling temps like around 150F for a certain length of time. I agree with the OP about not wanting to sulfite but something less tedious than pasteurizing 3+ gallons worth of bottles. In the meantime, just going with racking and cold crashing. Fridge fills up quickly and now considering pasteurizing so I can confidently gift some bottles without a written disclaimer...keep cold or else...!

@roadmi, I have been to a few Red Ledgers club meetings, and am going to officially pay my dues and join at the next one You from around here?

JtotheA, I dont have enough room to keep them all cold, and I generally give some away so I dont want to send bombs outside the house! I do 5g batches, so imaging pasteurizing ~50 bottles. Im sure it can and has been done, but seems like a loooooooot of work.

I joined a cpl months ago. I'm just north and west of St Johns.

I just did this...heated 5 gallons up to 190...it did not boil. Maybe lost some abv but still a pretty hard cider. Added concentrate and maple syrup. The end product tastes amazing.

I thought I read about people pasteurizing bottles in the dishwasher...can anyone confirm that it works? I finally live in a house with a dishwasher and would like to avoid repeating my almost-bottle bomb scenario of last year.

ChasidicCalvinist said:

I just did this...heated 5 gallons up to 190...it did not boil. Maybe lost some abv but still a pretty hard cider. Added concentrate and maple syrup. The end product tastes amazing.

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This is what I wanted to hear!! How long did you let it sit at 190? Did you add the concentrate and syrup immediately after the pasteruization? And did you cool/bottle immediately or did you let it sit for a while before bottling?

I held it at 190 for maybe 10 minutes? I don't remember actually. But after I turned the heat off I added concentrates and sugars. They dissolved since it was still hot. I bottled after it cooled down...which took forever.

I just cracked one of these open. Literally, it is sitting next to me as I type. It is also definitely carbonated which means not all of the yeast was killed. It tastes amazing. But it is carbonated. I'm not sure how that is possible. I know I held it at 190 for at least 10 minutes, it seemed like more. But...the happy little bubbles rising to the surface tell me the yeasties are making CO2.

So you pasteurized and cooled in an open container, than added sugar and bottled.........I'm betting you got a rogue yeast at work. Unless you were working in a sterile room. Kinda why most choose to pasteurize in the bottle.

Oh. That is cool and crappy. My beard is 3 years old, maybe it is from my beard?
http://www.kgw.com/video/featured-v...-yeast-from-beard-for-new-brew-160008245.html

ChasidicCalvinist said:

I just cracked one of these open. Literally, it is sitting next to me as I type. It is also definitely carbonated which means not all of the yeast was killed. It tastes amazing. But it is carbonated. I'm not sure how that is possible. I know I held it at 190 for at least 10 minutes, it seemed like more. But...the happy little bubbles rising to the surface tell me the yeasties are making CO2.

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Yikes. Thats scary. Are you worried at all about bombs? I would be keeping them cold for sure LOL

Im not sure about the wild yeast theory. Seems like there was not a lot of time to let enough wild critters in to really make any difference, but honestly I dont know anything about wild yeast

I wasn't worried about bombs until now. I leave town for 2 weeks so if there are any oh well!

The last (and only time so far) I was worried, I put the batch of bottles in a plastic trash bag until they made it into the fridge!

ka-blewie! I just poured this batch out today. I stacked all of my cases of beer on top of my cider hoping the pressure bearing down would counter act whatever might be building up. Sound stupid? It worked. Unfortunately because when I moved the cases today I immediately heard a POP! and the lid blew off one of my ciders. I tried one of them and my wife did as well, it tasted horrible and was more bubbly than champagne. So I poured them out. Not sure what happened. I guess it was wild yeast?

Holy sh*t no way! That sucks for sure. Yeah, wild yeast or maybe the pasteurization went wonky for some reason.

Well...here is what I have figured out. So I heated the batch up to 200 and I can't remember if it was covered or not. I think not. But even wild yeast would have been killed if it went into the pot at 200. But then I had trouble cooling it--I forgot to buy ice. So it sad in my bottling bucket for quite some time. At that point it was definitely covered. Then I had the ingenious idea to pour it into all of the bottles to cool it down quicker (smaller volume). So I did that and capped a few bottles but realized maybe they were too hot to cap so I didn't cap the rest. I had 2-3 bottles that had ZERO carbonation and the sugars were still present. I suspect those were the ones I capped. Now the question is how did some yeast get in all of the other uncapped bottles. Or did it get in to the cider before I bottled? I don't know. Very weird. And a big bummer to pour out that cider. But it tasted so bad at that point there was no reason to bottle pasteurize. Oh well! Time to buy more apple juice to brew another batch.

Keep on brewin'! 2 batches ago, I brewed a "graff" - I basically did a specialty malt steep for 30 minutes, then poured 4 gal apple juice into it. Im hoping it comes out more like a strongbow or angry orchard. Its done fermenting, will probably bottle this week or next weekend. I will bottle this one with priming sugar and hope for the best!