Bulk pasteurising for still cider

[noobcuber]

Hi people,

I'm planning to make cider for the first time this autumn and I have a question about pasteurisation. I'm aware of stovetop pasteurising in bottles to give control over sugar content and carbonation. However, I would prefer to make sweet cider without any carbonation. Is there any reason that I couldn't:

1. Ferment and rack etc.
2. Add sugar to the whole batch
3. Pasteurise the liquid in a big pot at 65-70 c for 10 minutes or so
4. Bottle and store

In other words, perform Pappers_' method of stovetop pasteurisation but bottling afterwards, instead of before? It seems to me like it would be a good way to produce still, sweet cider without the trouble of buying a pot tall enough for bottles, and avoiding the risk of a bottle bomb.

Apologies if this has already been asked, I have searched but I'm unfamiliar with this forum and much of the terminology

 

[gregbathurst]

The problem is with the extra step of bottling there is a chance of contamination and refermentation. No matter how well you clean your bottles and equipment they won't be fully sterile. Pasteurising in the bottle gives you total certainty, your proposed method gives some chance of bottle bombs.

 

[Chalkyt]

Apart from contamination etc, my concern would be that heating the "raw" unbottled cider might drive off alcohol and so affect the taste. Others with more chemical knowledge than me might have a different view.

If you bottle at the sweetness level that you want, and then pasteurise the sealed bottles immediately, I would expect the result to be sweet and uncarbonated.

I don't think there is any reason you couldn't pasteurise the bottles on their side thus avoiding the need for a tall pot.

I currently heat pasteurise cider with 2 - 2.5 atmospheres of carbonation at 65C after pre-heating with hot tap water at around 50C. This typically creates 100psi of bottle pressure during pasteurisation which should be well below the pressure limit for most beer bottles.

The bottles get up to 65C in six or seven minutes during which time around 12 PUs are generated, each minute they are left at this temperature results in another 5 PUs, and cooling back down to 60C results in another 25 PUs. So an elapsed time of 20 minutes easily achieves 50 PUs which is the "conventional" target for completely stopping the yeast action and destroying any spoilage pathogens. There are some views that 30 PUs are more than enough for cider.

At 65C pasteurisation temperature with no carbonation (except for the inherent 1 atmosphere in uncarbonated cider), bottle pressure shouldn't reach anywhere close to bottle bomb pressure. Andrew Lea's carbonation table suggests that with 1 atmosphere of CO2 in the cider at room temperature, the pressure at 65C would reach 35psi (the equivalent of about 2 atmospheres) which is just a bit below the room temperature of carbonation for most bottled beer and soft drinks.

 

[Toxxyc]

Yeah I believe the PUs differ based on ABV and pH of the solution as well, but I'd also aim a bit higher to be safe.

EDIT: That being said, why pasteurize if you want a still cider? Why don't you just stabilize with chemicals (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite)? It's super cheap and super convenient.

 

[noobcuber]

Hi, thanks everyone for the replies.

I think I'll follow Chalkyt's advice and pasteurise straight after bottling. Cheers for the suggestion to place the bottles on their sides, that should help a lot.

EDIT: That being said, why pasteurize if you want a still cider? Why don't you just stabilize with chemicals (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite)? It's super cheap and super convenient.

Thanks for the advice, but I'd rather do things in a bit more of an old fashioned, self sustainable way, even if it needs a little more effort

 

[Maylar]

Typical procedure would be to rack & stabilize with sulfite/sorbate then bottle. No heat.

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

The short answer is "no", there is no reason you can't do that. You could even pasteurize the fermentation before it's done. That's what I did last season, and we had wonderful cider. I also force carbonated my cider with a uKeg.

However, your sanitation needs to be perfect. Last season, I heat pasteurized several gallons of juice and syphoned it into 50 oz bottles (this was non-fermented juice). I used Star San on everything, but still ended up with a couple that went funky. I believe part of the issue was the free help I received from my mother and wife. Neither one of them could wrap their heads around what "sanitizing" means. I'm grateful for their help, and will happily accept it again this season, but I'm definitely adjusting my procedures. This year, for my non-fermented juice, I'm going to pasteurize it, pour it into a sanitized bucket with a spigot, and then use the spigot to fill the sanitized bottles. This will help prevent wayward hands from touching the syphon hose and the tops of the bottles.

For my hard cider, I heat pasteurized and then poured it into my fermentation bucket. When the SG got down to 1.020, I heat pasteurized again and poured it into bottles. The process worked pretty well.

This year, I got a big double-boiler so I can pasteurize without boiling. I managed to not boil the juice last season, but it was a long, slow process heating up the juice. With the double-boiler, it's still a slow process (almost an hour), but at least I don't have to watch it every second to make sure it doesn't boil. Also, it's a BIG, 16 qt double boiler that will pasteurize 12 quarts at a time (almost double what I could do last season).

Good luck!

 

[Toxxyc]

Thanks for the advice, but I'd rather do things in a bit more of an old fashioned, self sustainable way, even if it needs a little more effort

Sure, it's your choice, but just keep it in mind. I've "pasteurized" (it's called "stabilizing") with chemicals a lot, specifically when making meads, and it works really well. On top of doing what you want, it also protects the drink from further infection (the metabisulfite kills everything in there), and it also protects the colour and flavour from oxidization (the metabisulfite is a strong anti-oxidant). Using the correct doses is undetectable for most people drinking it. Those with sulfite sensitivity sometimes pick it up, but I've yet to meet such a person.

 

[Chalkyt]

I was scratching around the other day looking for something in Andrew Lea's book Craft Cider Making. If you don't have it you should be able to borrow, find a copy in a library etc. In Chapter 6 "Apple Juice, Cider Vinegar and Perry" he has a section on Pasteurization which describes a process of pasteurizing filled (but open) bottles using a stove-top waterbath.

There is an early version of this process on Andrew's website which seems to be a forerunner to the book (google The Science of Cider Making), part 6. He cautions against trying to pasteurise bulk cider in a tank or saucepan before it is bottled.