Commercial brewery hot pasteurization

Hi everybody,

I was wondering how do commercial breweries, which cannot afford cold pasteurization system, hot pasteurize their beer (provided they do pasteurize it, of course) ?

Do they pasteurize with uncarbonated beer?
Can they pasteurize a naturally carbonated beer without ending up with the pasteurizer pipe blowing up?

I know this forum is aimed to homebrewers.
But I'm just curious about the way commercial brewers deal with hot pasteurization.


I'd welcome any answer.
Cheers pals!

 

I'm pretty sure they pasteurize after product is bottled or canned. Heat cans or bottles over 160 degrees and hold them at that temp. For a specified time. I'm actually a dairy pasteurizer by trade. Never pasteurized beer though.

 

Ryno is correct in that beer is almost always pasteurized after packaging. The packaged beer is sprayed with temperature controlled water to achieve the desired effect.

Google "tunnel pasteurizer beer" for more

 

Thanks.
You're both right. Most breweries pasteurize through pasteurizer tunnel: capped beer is pasteurized.

Some apple juice producers use hot-fill pasteurization.
The product is pasteurized with flash-pasteurizer and bottled straight away.
I guess it's the technique used in dairy farms.


The thing is I did some experiments with my hard cider.
After using clarifying agents, my cider was super clear and:

1) I bottled some samples without pasteurization (just added sulfite);

2) I bottled some samples and pasteurized them (hot water bath at 166F for 10min). And I ended up with a uniform haze (the haze cloud had set).
Actually, that was not too bad. It reminds me a belgian white beer named Hoegarden, which is famous for its pleasant cloudiness.


So, the question would be: how do you pasteurize without creating that haze?

I guess commercial breweries use HTST pasteurization,
which doesn't create a haze like my redneck pasteurization


What do you think?

 

nachov,
Did you use pectinase before you pitched your yeast? It should break down the pectins. If the pectins aren't there, they can't set when you heat them.

 

Hi dgr!

I used pectinase.
After I pressed the apples, I sulfited the juice,
then 12 hours later I added pectinase; and in just 1hour the juice turned out clear.

I was stunned by its performance.

Actually, I think the haze I got after pasteurization might be some yeast in suspension.

The next time I rack-bottle, I'll be extra careful to keep the yeast undisturbed.

I'll tell you if it works out fine.

Thank you for the hints.