Helps from you more experienced and experimental guys:
I want to make a Cyser. I want it to be something like Zombie Killer. I will be bottling this stuff. I have come across some recipes but I am lost about some of the process. I keep seeing that you need to pasteurize the stuff after it has been in the bottle for a few days. I understand the why: after backsweetening, the dreaded bottle bomb is a near certainty. I don't understand the how. Do you just soak the bottles in really hot water for some period of time? How do you know that it is fully pasteurized? Is this just flirting with disaster?
There is a really long thread about bottle pasteurizing that you might want to read through, but the basic idea is:
1) Make sure your (12 oz) bottles aren't overcarbed to begin with! Use a tester bottle. I've had some things carb in 24 hours!
2) Warm the bottles in some hot tap water while you heat big pot of water to 180F. Make sure your bottles will be covered by at least an inch.
3) Remove the pot from the heat and transfer the bottles into it...carefully. I would put a cover on the pot, just a little ajar and set a timer for ten minutes. This is the time where an overcarbed bottle is most likely to pop, thus the cover. If you have any bottles that are not well seal, you might see some bubbles coming up from them.
4) When the tie is up, carefully remove the bottles to a countertop...I usually put down a kitchen towel. Allow to completely come to room temperature, and then they will be fine to store. They will not "age" and improve anymore, but they should be stabile practically indefinitely.
If I've missed anything, I hope others will chime in! I've pasteurized several batches and I've had two bottles break and one that was not well-sealed. Otherwise, things went smoothly.
