Another carbing question.

[Mirozel]

I know the venerable forum members here have answered the same 5 or 6 questions hundereds of times; but I'm going to ask one of those questions again, just to be sure I'm not doing something stupid.

I made a cider with store bought juice, and I plan to let it ferment out then back sweeten. If I back sweeten with concentrates, bottle it, let it sit for a few days to carb up, can I then throw all of it in the beer fridge and not worry about bottle bombs, or is the pasturization necessary?

 

[CidahMastah]

I know the venerable forum members here have answered the same 5 or 6 questions hundereds of times; but I'm going to ask one of those questions again, just to be sure I'm not doing something stupid.

I made a cider with store bought juice, and I plan to let it ferment out then back sweeten. If I back sweeten with concentrates, bottle it, let it sit for a few days to carb up, can I then throw all of it in the beer fridge and not worry about bottle bombs, or is the pasturization necessary?

in theory this would work, as long as you kept them nice and cold. But fermentation will carry on, depending on the yeast strain, if they are allowed to get to warm.

Do you have kids in your house? frequent power outages?

There is risk, just depends on your level of comfort.

 

[Pappers_]

^^^ +1

One member here, though, has reported that refrigerator chilling did *not* make the yeast he was using go dormant. But for an ale yeast like Nottingham, it will surely knock those yeasties out and put them to sleep. As suggested above, just don't let them warm up and wake up again

 

[oldmate]

Haha, I'm that member. My yeast (an un-named wine yeast) will actively brew in the fridge and I have recently let my one gal batches brew for a month or two in the fridge which gives it an amazing crisp apple taste, drinkable almost straight out of primary. The point being, just because it works for the majority of people does not mean it will work for everyone. I would pasteurise/stabilise/keg/dry bottle condition the bottles just in case.

I'd rather an extra half hour of work than a trip to the emergency room.

 

[Mirozel]

I'm using a washed yeast from my a recent batch of beer - Wyeast American Ale, I think. I'm tempted to try Pappers' pasteurizing method, but I was hoping that keeping the bottles in the beer fridge would be just as effective.

 

[Pappers_]

I would think that any ale yeast would go dormant in the refrigerator.

 

[CidahMastah]

I agree with pappers - I think the bigger risk would be wine yeasts, in particular robust champagne yeasts.

However, no way I would do what he is suggesting above. I keg my stuff, but cold crash then sorbate and sulfite. Works great.