Pasteurize the whole thing?

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JonM

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If I'm making a one-gallon test batch of mead or cider or skeeter pee or whatever, when it gets to the right finishing gravity, can I just fill my 5-gallon kettle with 190ish degree water, rack to a glass one-gallon jug, and then put the whole glass one-gallon fermenter in there to pasteurize it and stop fermentation?

My concern, of course, is that the jug would break. Any thoughts?
 
As long as the temp difference isn't huge it should be fine. Try putting your carboy in the sink and running hot water over it for like an hour to heat it up to a more similar temp just to be on the safe side.
 
Why stop a ferment ?

Just mix it to the gravity that corresponds to the strength you want and let the yeast run out of fermentable sugars.....
 
I'd like to leave some residual sweetness and wanted to see if there was an alternative to stabilizing/back sweetening, bottle pasteurization, sweetening with unfermentables, etc.
 
I'd like to leave some residual sweetness and wanted to see if there was an alternative to stabilizing/back sweetening, bottle pasteurization, sweetening with unfermentables, etc.

Makes sense to me...like bodhi86 said, I'd think that if you didn't change the temp rapidly, it wouldn't be an issue...what if you just put the gallon in the kettle, then slowly heated it up to the pasteurizing temp? Sort of a "frog in the pan" technique...

I would suggest that you probably don't need to get up to that high of a temp (190). Pasteurization can be accomplished at much lower temps, you just need to hold temp longer. Also, the boiling point of alcohol is like 174, and I'd worry you'd start to loose booze if you go that high! :eek:

Let us know how this works out, and what you end up doing....
 
Someone had a chart here for the temperature and length of time you had to hit to kill yeast. When I pasteurize I usually just put my whole 5-gal carboy in my 20-qt stockpot on top of a small rack (so it's not just sitting on the bottom of the pot). It just fits. Then I fill it with water and put it on the stove. I run a probe thermometer and boil the water until the mead temp hits 150ºF (I usually overshoot a couple deg), then I turn it off. Then I take the carboy out of the pot and let it cool, either in the fridge or with fans and a wet towel around it.
 
What is the advantage of pasteurizing, exposing mead to high temps (potential for evaporation of volitile components of aroma maybe even flavor and alcohol content) over cold crashing and racking off the lees?
 
Pasteurizing works consistently. I've not been able to stop a wine/champagne yeast by racking.
 
Could you simply dump the liquid out of the fermenter, into a giant pot, and then pasteurize? I have a large pot, but not large enough to put a fermenter into.
 
Could you simply dump the liquid out of the fermenter, into a giant pot, and then pasteurize? I have a large pot, but not large enough to put a fermenter into.
Of course you can, but long before it gets to pasturising temperature, you will have evaporated off most, if not all the alcohol.......
 
use a pressure cooker to heat it in. as long as pressure doesn't get to high you will retain everything.
i know guys that do cider and they pasteurize it after it been bottled.
 
Of course you can, but long before it gets to pasturising temperature, you will have evaporated off most, if not all the alcohol.......
I don't think so. The evaporation point of ethyl alcohol is 79ºC/174ºF. Vat pasteurization (30 min) only need go up to 63/145. Even HTST pasteurization (15 sec) is 72/161.
 
I don't think so. The evaporation point of ethyl alcohol is 79ºC/174ºF.

That's actually the boiling point of ethanol, the temp when the vapor pressure equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid


Ethanol will slowly begin to evaporate at 12.1*C (53.78*F) in an open environment.
 
put the one gallon in the oven and slowly bring the temp up to 150, leave it in for 20-30 minutes, turn the oven off, leave the door open, and let it naturally cool back to room temperature. Viola! Putting it in the big pan works too, (150 for 20-30 min or 160 for 10-20 min). I read someone say to put a dishtowel in the bottom to keep the glass from direct contact with the heating metal. Never tried that though.
 
The problem with putting directly in a pot to pasteurize is that the liquid in direct and/or close contact with the pot are much hotter than those in the middle, unless you want to be stirring for half anhour ( I know, I've done it) and still lose at least a percentage of alcohol, I'd suggest keeping it in a sealed container, jars used for pickling eggs will normally hold a gallon and fit in most pots. I've seen " feed till it chokes on booze" techniques work( and very well), but it's a lengthy work filled process to get accurate readings and tasty booze, albeit worth the effort. if your looking for a quick no chem finish, pasteurize, but account for booze loss.
 
It's easy to solve....... don't bother.

After all, why apply a technique used for problems in the dairy production industry, when its not necessary ?

Heat is used where necessary with beer making, flavour extraction, starch conversion, even still water treatment in some places. Mead works fine with cold water and agitation of the water honey mix.

Don't get too mesmerised by numbers, its natural materials mainly, so let nature do its thing.
 
If money isn't too large an issue, you could consider sticking it in a keg, and putting it under a few PSI.
It won't murder the yeast like you're suggesting, but it will have a high enough osmotic pressure to render the yeast inactive.
 
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