Bottle Time

I have a sour ready for bottling and I want to kill off the active bugs before doing so. Reasoning behind this is to prevent further souring. I have explored three options and would like to hear opinions:

Dropping temp on the batch to around 25F.

Using potassium metabisulfite.

Stove-top batch pasteurization.

It's a fruit sour, so I guess pectin issues should be considered.

I wouldn't expect 25F to completely wipe out the bugs. It will probably cause some damage to the cells but not enough to knock them out completely.
I think potassium metabisulfite is your best bet here.

Are you trying to bottle carb it?

pbarning said:

I have a sour ready for bottling and I want to kill off the active bugs before doing so. Reasoning behind this is to prevent further souring. I have explored three options and would like to hear opinions:

Dropping temp on the batch to around 25F.

Using potassium metabisulfite.

Stove-top batch pasteurization.

It's a fruit sour, so I guess pectin issues should be considered.

Click to expand...

Why do you want to kill off the bugs, are you blending or is the gravity currently high? If neither I wouldnt kill the bugs, as the bottles will continue to evolve over time.

If your dead set on knocking out the bacteria (cant do anything really about brett) in the past Ive done .....

1 - Cold crash hard (32F)
2 - Rack
3 - Fine with gelatin
4 - Rack, hit it with campden
5 - bottle in 24hrs

doing this Ive had sours that have been stable in the bottle for years

Thanks for the responses. I am going to bottle this, though I'm very tempted to keg it. My interest is to preserve the current flavor. I don't want to go to bottle and allow for further souring. So, after the bug cleanse I will repitch a neutral strain and bottle 'er up.