Easy Stove-Top Pasteurizing - With Pics

[JayInAmes]

No one needs to know this method works, but it's very easy. Using a big pressure canner, left the gasket out, fill the water to the neck of 10 bottles, and go to town.

Long time to get to 180-190, but 10 bottles for 10 mins brings the temp down to the mid 160s. 10 mins to recharge back to 180-190, and another 10 bottles. Works very nicely!

 

[Blue-Frog]

I like the concept of having the lid on while doing this! I feel compelled to remind people not to look straight down upon the tops of hot bottles full of carbonation under pressure - especially when you do not know how much pressure and what internal temperature is reaching... if the bottle is stronger than seal, the cap can become a bullet. Better not to yield to the temptation of "seeing how things are going" untill they have cooled down to ~ room temp.

 

[cpham574]

Has anyone tried using a Grainfather to pasteurize? I could set the temp to 170-180 and recirculate the water with the bottles in the grain basket. It's just like mashing...but with bottles of cider

 

[Pappers_]

Has anyone tried using a Grainfather to pasteurize? I could set the temp to 170-180 and recirculate the water with the bottles in the grain basket. It's just like mashing...but with bottles of cider

Thats a great idea

 

[cpham574]

Thats a great idea

Thanks! I know in your original post you say to bring the temp to 190, but do you think 170 for 15 mins would be okay?

 

[Pappers_]

Its been a long time since I've done this. If you look back through this thread, you'll see some posts that speak more authoritatively on the temperature and time needed to pasteurize or kill off the yeast.

 

[cpham574]

Its been a long time since I've done this. If you look back through this thread, you'll see some posts that speak more authoritatively on the temperature and time needed to pasteurize or kill off the yeast.

Lots of pages to skim through so I randomly picked page 86 and got the info I was looking for! Someone did 160 for 10 mins and was fine.

My plan is put the bottles in the grain basket of the GF, let em sit in the water while it's heating up to 160 then hold it there for 10 mins. Will report back when this is done. Hopefully I don't get any bombs! Normally I would keg, but this was my first cider and only a 1 gal batch.

 

[Pappers_]

Lots of pages to skim through so I randomly picked page 86 and got the info I was looking for! Someone did 160 for 10 mins and was fine.

My plan is put the bottles in the grain basket of the GF, let em sit in the water while it's heating up to 160 then hold it there for 10 mins. Will report back when this is done. Hopefully I don't get any bombs! Normally I would keg, but this was my first cider and only a 1 gal batch.

If its just a few bottles, and you have room in a fridge, you could store them chilled until you drink them, just for an added layer of safety against bottle bombs.

 

[cpham574]

Its been a long time since I've done this. If you look back through this thread, you'll see some posts that speak more authoritatively on the temperature and time needed to pasteurize or kill off the yeast.

Last question - does the temp and time change if we're using bombers?

 

[Pappers_]

I would suppose it would take a little longer for the cider inside the larger bottles to rise to the target temperature.

 

[MarkKF]

You can take a bottle, poke a hole in the cap and put in a meat thermometer and monitor the temp. I can’t remember the temp/times but there is a chart. You have to hit temp x and stay above for y min. The higher the x the shorter the y.

 

[cpnegrad07]

Exploded bottle. Hope that got your attention---it got mine. I was 3 feet away, had a lid on a light canning kettle (one of those Graniteware thin metal pots with a lid). I had 10 different kinds of bottles in there; all were used before. The one that blew was oblong around---maybe that is a weak design. Anyway, the SG was about 1.010 2 days ago and when i opened one before the pasteurization, it foamed out big time. So, yes, i had some pressure in there. How much do you have? I started at a temp of 180 and put the bottles in and turned off the heat for 10 min. The bottle blew at 8 min. I had on safety glasses and a heavy coat; several pieces came out and about the kitchen. So, take the safety part seriously.

 

[Chalkyt]

How accurate/reliable would it be to keep a test jar/narrow bottle (say 100ml) for some time after bottling, with a hydrometer in it to monitor the "right time" to pasteurise. For example, bottle at 1.007 and pasteurise at 1.005 in order to get a slightly sweet, carbonated cider.

Just trying to dream up some way than opening test bottles. Any thoughts?

 

[cpnegrad07]

How accurate/reliable would it be to keep a test jar/narrow bottle (say 100ml) for some time after bottling, with a hydrometer in it to monitor the "right time" to pasteurise. For example, bottle at 1.007 and pasteurise at 1.005 in order to get a slightly sweet, carbonated cider.

Just trying to dream up some way than opening test bottles. Any thoughts?

seems reasonable. Let us know.

 

[datagreier]

In theory, 150f should be enough to kill the yeast. My dishwasher goes to 150, and heats the water gradually, minimising the chance of explosion. Also, a bottle explosion inside the dishwasher wouldn't make a mess.. I have a batch of barberry pear cider bubbling at the moment, and will try the pasteurisation-by-dishwasher and post the results if the results are successful or interesting.

 

[Ike]

How accurate/reliable would it be to keep a test jar/narrow bottle (say 100ml) for some time after bottling, with a hydrometer in it to monitor the "right time" to pasteurise. For example, bottle at 1.007 and pasteurise at 1.005 in order to get a slightly sweet, carbonated cider.

Just trying to dream up some way than opening test bottles. Any thoughts?

To what degree will the alcohol volatilize (evaporate) out of solution? ...assuming the test bottle isn't capped, of course.

 

[NickT]

Two quick questions: can pectic enzyme be added near the end of fermenting? and can I use the
Grolsh type wire bale lid bottles and allow a little more time in the hot water,say 15min instead of
10 ?

 

[NateBodnar]

In theory, 150f should be enough to kill the yeast. My dishwasher goes to 150, and heats the water gradually, minimising the chance of explosion. Also, a bottle explosion inside the dishwasher wouldn't make a mess.. I have a batch of barberry pear cider bubbling at the moment, and will try the pasteurisation-by-dishwasher and post the results if the results are successful or interesting.

Any luck with this method?

 

[he-brew28]

Has anyone tried pasteurizing in a cooler, similar to mashing? For example heating a few gallons of water to 170-180 and pouring it in a cooler or mash tun and then placing your bottled cider in it for 10 minutes?

 

[Kees]

At what temparature do you keel your pasturized ciders?

 

[Kees]

keel must be keep

 

[bobby b]

FYI:

I've been using a sous vide machine for cooking for years, and I also use it to bottle-pasteurize my mead.

If you don't know what a sous vide machine is, it's a small pump-heater with which you heat and circulate water around food - usually meat - that is sealed in a plastic bag. It allows you to cook meat to precise temperatures all of the way through. I can make a perfect medium-rare steak every time I try.

But, it also makes for a wonderful way to heat my mead bottles in a water bath to exactly 140 all of the way through, and hold it there for the necessary 10-15 minutes to pasteurize them. No need to heat the water to 190 and risk bombs, plus precise control so that flavor isn't affected.

Go to someplace like Amazon and look up "Anova Sous Vide." Costs about $75.00. Great for cooking, better for mead.

 

[NateBodnar]

FYI:

I've been using a sous vide machine for cooking for years, and I also use it to bottle-pasteurize my mead.

If you don't know what a sous vide machine is, it's a small pump-heater with which you heat and circulate water around food - usually meat - that is sealed in a plastic bag. It allows you to cook meat to precise temperatures all of the way through. I can make a perfect medium-rare steak every time I try.

But, it also makes for a wonderful way to heat my mead bottles in a water bath to exactly 140 all of the way through, and hold it there for the necessary 10-15 minutes to pasteurize them. No need to heat the water to 190 and risk bombs, plus precise control so that flavor isn't affected.

Go to someplace like Amazon and look up "Anova Sous Vide." Costs about $75.00. Great for cooking, better for mead.

This sounds like a much better solution to stop bottle bombs! 75 bucks is worth no glass shrapnel in my opinion. Thanks!

 

[primerib]

Safety first

 

[InspectorJon]

This is a very long thread and someone has probably already said this but I thought I would post a few pictures of my process. It seems like slowly bringing bottles up to temp rather than plunging into hot water would be less stressful so I used a false bottom for my pot using a flat pizza pan and a pie edge protector. It is the same thing I use for BIAB to keep the bag off the bottom if I want to add heat to my mash. I put the false bottom in the pot and then the bottles and brought up to 160 degrees and held there for a few minutes. The bottle in the middle has water in it.

 

[MT2sum]

This is a very long thread and someone has probably already said this but I thought I would post a few pictures of my process. It seems like slowly bringing bottles up to temp rather than plunging into hot water would be less stressful so I used a false bottom for my pot using a flat pizza pan and a pie edge protector. It is the same thing I use for BIAB to keep the bag off the bottom if I want to add heat to my mash. I put the false bottom in the pot and then the bottles and brought up to 160 degrees and held there for a few minutes. The bottle in the middle has water in it.
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I was thinking along those lines way back .... I was wondering if the water/beer/cider's density would give different temperature readings - (I'm no scientist) but then I decided it didn't matter, temperature is temperature after all!

I haven't had the need to pasteurize anything so far, but I like the idea of warming the product up to the pasteurizing temps, rather than dunking them from fridge to 160°F water. nice pix!

 

[J Trott]

A floating thermometer is a cheap tool that really adds convenience to this process.

Would an instant read meat thermometer work? Never thought to try it in liquid but it is all I have at the moment. Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[jiMithing83]

I was thinking along those lines way back .... I was wondering if the water/beer/cider's density would give different temperature readings - (I'm no scientist) but then I decided it didn't matter, temperature is temperature after all!

I haven't had the need to pasteurize anything so far, but I like the idea of warming the product up to the pasteurizing temps, rather than dunking them from fridge to 160°F water. nice pix!

The thermal conductivity of water and cider are probably not exactly the same, but also probably closer enough to not make any real difference. Engineeringtoolbox.com had data for apples, but not for cider. Whole apples are 0.87 btu/(lb°F), i'd imagine the juice is closer to water's 1 btu/(lb°F).

 

[jiMithing83]

A floating thermometer is a cheap tool that really adds convenience to this process.

Would an instant read meat thermometer work? Never thought to try it in liquid but it is all I have at the moment. Thanks in advance for any insight!

I use a meat thermometer in my mash, works just fine. Not quite "instant", but only takes a few seconds to level out.

 

[Maylar]

Would an instant read meat thermometer work? Never thought to try it in liquid but it is all I have at the moment. Thanks in advance for any insight!

What you show isn't "instant read".. but it'll work. I use a Thermo Pop pen thermometer from my BBQ for reading rehydration water temps and it works great. Responds in a few seconds.