So, i have searched the internet high and low to find a good way to back sweeten and pasteurize ciders ( bottle fermented) and have only found the old way.... (heat up a pot and dunk them in 190 degree water).. NO WAY .. I have a new idea.. if you look at the way tunnel pasteurizers work, it has to do with slow heat up and cool down with time and temp in the center 2 zones being the critical factors. So why not use this in home brewing? It's simple really. So i use my kettle as the hot water supply, and pump water from the kettle into a cooler with a false bottom inside, and return that water back to the kettle using gravity. If I slowly heat the water and use a series of spray pipes like a retort or autoclave, why would I not achieve the same results? The only issue is the temp over how much time ...
So i mount a copper pipe with a bunch of tiny holes in a cooler large enough to hold 48 bottles of beer. ( simple enough... right?) and then control my temp and time by the flame on the kettle and how long it stays above 60C in the cooler ( 15 min ish) and then slowly cut the flame to slow the "cooling" as the pump recirculates... emulating the slow rise and decline that tunnel pasteurizers use on a commercial basis .
I hope this helps a lot of cider brewers like myself out there... cheap and easy..
So i mount a copper pipe with a bunch of tiny holes in a cooler large enough to hold 48 bottles of beer. ( simple enough... right?) and then control my temp and time by the flame on the kettle and how long it stays above 60C in the cooler ( 15 min ish) and then slowly cut the flame to slow the "cooling" as the pump recirculates... emulating the slow rise and decline that tunnel pasteurizers use on a commercial basis .
I hope this helps a lot of cider brewers like myself out there... cheap and easy..