Carbing, Back Sweetening and the Dishwasher

[Schark]

I've made a couple batches of cider now and have always let it fully ferment, then cold crash and then bottle and leave still. Worked well so far, but now I'd like to try my hand at carbing and sweetening.

My plan is to make a 5 gallon batch and let it completely ferment out. I won't cold crash but will add in some apple juice concentrate when I bottle. I'll check a bottle a day for a week or so, until I get some carbonation (don't want much). When it's at the level I want, I'll throw the whole batch into the dishwasher for a nice long run of hot water, and then toss them all into the fridge until I want them. From what I've read, this should work perfectly.

My question though is, has anyone actually done this? Reading about it is one thing, but I want to know that someone has actually tried it and didn't have 50 bottles explode in their dishwasher!

Thanks!

-Schark

 

[Schark]

Been a couple weeks so I thought I would bump this. If I don't hear anything, well then, I'm going to just give this a shot and I'll report back

 

[Rynosthe1]

Sorry I have never done this-but definitely interested to see if it works!

 

[ViperMan]

Unless you want really shiny bottles, the dishwasher won't do you any good.

All of the discussion surrounding bottle-pasteurization has been for those of us who DON'T want the cider to completely ferment out.

If you let it ferment out like beer, then add a priming sugar (of any kind), the yeast will carbonate with the priming sugar, and stop as soon as that sugar is consumed. You'll have dry, carbonated hard cider, which then you can back-sweeten if you want.

Hope this helps. By the way I still don't think the dishwasher is going to work. I bottle-pasteurized some cider tonight, and pulled the 145 degree bottles out of the water. They were too hot to touch for any longer than 2-3 seconds. I've pulled dishes from a dishwasher the moment it cut off, and they've never been nearly that hot.

 

[bhambrewer]

You can add a non-fermentable sweetener with your priming sugar, and you will get a sweet, carbonated, hard cider.

 

[FilJos]

I don't know, but my dishwasher gets pretty darn hot. Since it's just using hot water straight from the heater, I suppose if you could fiddle with your water heater's controls, test the temp at the tap to make certain that it is in the right range for bottle pasteurization and then go from there, keeping in mind that the heating element in the dishwasher would probably keep the water plenty hot.

To be honest, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

 

[CvilleKevin]

With a commercial dishwasher it is no problem. All you need to do is program a short wash cycle, followed by a dry cycle which slowly ramps to 150F and holds for 10-15 min.

For a regular kitchen dishwasher it depends on the model. You have to dig out the manual and see what it can do. Almost all have a bunch of pre-programmed cycles and there may be one with a long and hot enough dry cycle to work (I would not rely on water temp of the wash cycle). Ideally you can program your own, in which case you want a short wash, followed by ramping temp over say 5 min to 150, hold for 15 min, and 5 min cool down. If it doesnt have a ramp temp capability, try to program 2 dry cycles - a short one at ~125F for 5 min, followed by ~150F for 15 min. That way the bottles dont get too hot, too fast.

However even with a commercial, fully programmable dishwasher, all the caveats in Papper's sticky still apply. If the bottles are weak and/or over carbed, they can burst. But at least cleanup is not a big deal, other than wiping up some glass.

 

[BoomerCreek]

I sterilize bottles, pre-bottling, in the dishwasher and have never had problems. That being said, the tempering valve in line from your hot water heater by code in CA won't allow the hot water to exceed 160 F. It can be taken out if your hot water heater will get water that hot. I imagine if that was done the dishwasher would run the cycles at whatever temp the heater could push, hopefully enough to sterilize whatever you put into it.

 

[CvilleKevin]

Warning about turning your water heater up to 160F - that will melt PET carboys, even if you hand wash. I keep mine at 150 during cider season which is hot enough so that all water coming out of my hot tank is sterile and good for cleaning, but does not warp my BB carboys

If you use the dry cycle instead of the wash cycle to do the pasteurization, then the water in your faucets does not need to be so hot, plus you do not need to heat up all that water

Also, if you reprogram your dishwasher to do a bottle pasteurization cycle, be careful you dont use the same cycle for washing plastic stuff without testing first