Heat Pasteurisation and Carbonation for Sweet Cider

[Chalkyt]

Regular contributors to HBT will be aware that there seems to have been increasing interest in producing a sweet carbonated cider. Hardly a week seems to go by without a question or post on the subject.

Heat pasteurisation is one way to retain sweetness and carbonation, so I figured it might be worthwhile updating this file which has grown since it was first posted and now puts a lot of information on the topic together in one place. The idea is that by having it as a "stand alone" post with an easily remembered title on an easily remembered date (1 February 2021) it should be easy for anyone to find and add to.

Cheers!

 

[Maylar]

Not to under value what you've taken the time to assemble, but maybe we should be singing the praises of kegging. Once I bought a keg setup, I never looked back. Imagine fermenting dry, sweetening with FAJC or honey, and having sweet bubbly cider in a couple days.

 

[Chalkyt]

Certainly kegging sounds very attractive. One of the small cider producers at Batlow (over the mountains from us) has suggested this to me, using fine micron filters and Corny Kegging but as I am only doing a few gallons from my orchard apples, I went down the pasteurising/carbonation path. Perhaps it is a stepping stone for "newbies" before moving to kegging.

 

[Maylar]

I've never pasteurized. When I first started cidering I did one gallon batches and bottle conditioned with Xylitol. As I stepped up batch sizes I now do about 6 gallons a year and have a small 1.5 gallon keg in a mini fridge. Not a lot of investment.