Dishwasher pasteurization experiment update

Hi guys, I mentioned pasteurizing my cider in the dishwasher so I thought I oughtta give a full report on how it's going. The experiment is not finished yet -- but I should know soon if it worked as I figured it would.

Background ... my dishwasher has a "sterilize" setting that cooks the dishes at 160 degrees for 9 minutes. This seemed perfect for pasteurizing cider, so I loaded my last two batches into the dishwasher to stop them fermenting short of total dryness.

In both cases, the finished product tastes great and definitely has some residual fermentable sweetness to it. Both batches were bottled in champagne glass and allowed to develop carbonation (way too much, in the first batch).

So far, what I've observed is this:

1. The process generates tremendous pressure in the bottles. My capper puts a small depression in the top of each crown cap; after coming out of the dishwasher, the bottle caps on these were slightly domed. This probably means really stout glass is needed to prevent bursting.

2. So far, none of the bottles have shown any sign of continuing fermentation. My latest batch is quite sweet, almost too sweet, so if any more fermentation happens in any of them (the batch made 12 of them) I expect I will know soon enough.

I'll keep you posted on this one. So far, the results are pretty promising.

Cheers!

--Finn

How did you find out what temperature the dishwasher runs at?

I found my dishwasher manual online and was able to discover that "Normal Wash High-Temp" will hit 140degrees, which should be perfect. Try googling your model number?

the thing i dont understand is i pasteurized some left over juice to drink as juice but it started to ferment in the bottle . did i not do it properly i think it was about 90 oc for 20 mins

90 deg for 20 min would kill any yeast for sure!

What happens when if u run the cider for the whole cycle.

If you were really at 90C for 20 minutes in a water bath - you would have been complaining about bottles exploding... so you probably weren't... I won't go above 82C for fear of bursting bottles....

Need to verify where your thermometer was sitting... If it was sitting on the bottom of the pot - it will read real hot but the water won't be...

Thanks