Easy Stove-Top Pasteurizing - With Pics

[sparkshooter]

I've done one batch and had one bottle break, but I think that was due to a manufacturing error in the bottle because the whole bottom just fell off the minute it got in the water and I had a bottle in two perfect pieces.

FWIW, I pasteurized at 170 for 10 minutes and it's now been weeks and weeks so clearly it was effective.

 

[mindiB]

I use a candy thermometer

 

[Temptd2]

I pasteurized some rice wine last week using this tutorial and it worked great! Thanks so much!

 

[brewski09]

Has anyone fermented this dry, back sweetened with apple juice, and then carbonated and pasteurized? If so, how did you treat the apple juice (not frozen concentrate) ??? Thanks in advance.

 

[CanadianBacon]

They are sold in homebrew stores and online brewing stores. I don't know what a spa floating thermometer is, so can't say if they are the same.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/floating-thermometer.html
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/floating-thermometer.html

ahhh, thank you! i was looking everywere but the brew store. Man i wasted time and gas!

 

[Pappers_]

Has anyone fermented this dry, back sweetened with apple juice, and then carbonated and pasteurized? If so, how did you treat the apple juice (not frozen concentrate) ??? Thanks in advance.

That is exactly what I do these days. Three gallons juice fermented dry, back sweetened with one gallon of juice, carbonated and pasteurized. I use pectic enzyme in the juice before fermentation, but don't treat the back sweetening juice with anything .

 

[brewski09]

No oxidation problems then?


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[Pappers_]

No oxidation problems then?


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No, is there a concern about a particular part of the process leading to oxidation?

 

[HBngNOK]

Is there a rule of thumb on how full to fill the bottles when you're pasteurizing on the stove top?

 

[phug]

Definitely some headspace is required to allow for pressure buildup. I've used my bottling wand as my guide



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[brewski09]

No, is there a concern about a particular part of the process leading to oxidation?

When the apple juice is added you could be adding oxygen just before bottling and there isn't enough fermentation time in bottle carbonation to eliminate the oxygen.


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[Pappers_]

When the apple juice is added you could be adding oxygen just before bottling and there isn't enough fermentation time in bottle carbonation to eliminate the oxygen.


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Oh I see. I do it just the same as priming beer for bottling. Gently add the priming/backsweetening liquid to the bucket first, then rack the beer/cider into the bottling bucket making sure that the end of the tubing is submerged under the priming/backsweetening liquid so there is no splashing.

 

[brewski09]

Cool. That makes me feel better. Thanks


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[CanadianBacon]

I just did this for the first time and it worked great, nothing exploded.

 

[sudbuster]

May the god of cider bless you abundantly, Papers, for introducing this innovative and easily understood method of pasteurizing cider for artisanal brewers. Also, may they bless you for your extreme patience in this thread, which I have read. You are a natural mod. No one else could bear some of the inane responses you take in stride, well, maybe?, Yooper?. No, forget that, she wouldn't even have your patience. Carry the banner high, pappers. Cheers.

P.S. You even had patience with some of my inane posts in other threads, amazing...

 

[Pappers_]

Thanks, Suds.

 

[Keith66]

Another batch successfully pasteurized in the dishwasher on pots & pans, hi-temp, sani-rinse setting. Now to let them cool overnight before putting them back in their cases. Beats risking a bomb in the face. Mmmm... cold, fizzy, sweet cider tomorrow!

 

[Brewer_Chad]

Could I put my cider in my turkey fryer and heat the batch up to 190 and hold it at that temp for 10 min then back sweeten, or would in need to be in bottles? I know the alcohol would start to evaporate at 172. Just trying to figure a way to kill the yeast in a large batch in one shot.


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[HopSong]

I have two cidery's close to me and both us a fancy machine.. not unlike a dishwasher.. that sprays, if I remember correctly, 180* water down on the bottles. They get a few broken bottles.. but, not many. The process is pretty fast.. no where near 10 minutes.

That said, I made a post awhile back about breaking bottles.. and I had a few myself. My belief is that the bottles are not broken by temperature and pressure alone. Maybe I should rephrase that.. but not sure the proper words.

I just did an experiment where I was going to make a dip stick to determine the amount of water in my boil kettle. I poured in 1/2 gallon at a time and put a mark on the dowel until I hit 4 gallons. Then I boiled it and the change was significant. The line went up to almost 4.5 gallons. The water expanded due to the heat. Duh? you say??
My belief is that most broken bottles are due to that expansion of the liquid in the capped bottles and there is NO place for it to go except to explode the bottles.

Ice works in the same way. When an amount of water freezes, it expands. Fill a bottle to the top, cap it and freeze it.. It will break.. won't explode.. but will break. I remember as a kid, experiments where they drilled and tapped a hole in a 'cannonball'.. dropped in a couple drops of water and sealed the hole with a bolt. Froze the cannonball and the ball split from the expansion of the ice. Same thing happens with ice in mountain rock.. The freezing.. and expansion.. splits the rocks.

Next time you pasteurize a bottle.. put a mark on the bottle where the cider is at ambient (room) temp. When you finish your pasteurizing time, pull the bottle and check the liquid level.

I've had bottles break.. and I've had situations where I can hear 'steam' escaping from the bottles w/o blowing the caps.

My suggestion is.. do NOT fill a cider bottle the same way you fill a beer bottle. Leave MORE head space.. and/or pasteurize at a lower temp. You aren't trying to kill bacteria.. just Yeast.. Even if you go to 165* for 10 minutes, you will kill any remaining yeast and have fewer explosions.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

 

[brewski09]

I have two cidery's close to me and both us a fancy machine.. not unlike a dishwasher.. that sprays, if I remember correctly, 180* water down on the bottles. They get a few broken bottles.. but, not many. The process is pretty fast.. no where near 10 minutes.

That said, I made a post awhile back about breaking bottles.. and I had a few myself. My belief is that the bottles are not broken by temperature and pressure alone. Maybe I should rephrase that.. but not sure the proper words.

I just did an experiment where I was going to make a dip stick to determine the amount of water in my boil kettle. I poured in 1/2 gallon at a time and put a mark on the dowel until I hit 4 gallons. Then I boiled it and the change was significant. The line went up to almost 4.5 gallons. The water expanded due to the heat. Duh? you say??
My belief is that most broken bottles are due to that expansion of the liquid in the capped bottles and there is NO place for it to go except to explode the bottles.

Ice works in the same way. When an amount of water freezes, it expands. Fill a bottle to the top, cap it and freeze it.. It will break.. won't explode.. but will break. I remember as a kid, experiments where they drilled and tapped a hole in a 'cannonball'.. dropped in a couple drops of water and sealed the hole with a bolt. Froze the cannonball and the ball split from the expansion of the ice. Same thing happens with ice in mountain rock.. The freezing.. and expansion.. splits the rocks.

Next time you pasteurize a bottle.. put a mark on the bottle where the cider is at ambient (room) temp. When you finish your pasteurizing time, pull the bottle and check the liquid level.

I've had bottles break.. and I've had situations where I can hear 'steam' escaping from the bottles w/o blowing the caps.

My suggestion is.. do NOT fill a cider bottle the same way you fill a beer bottle. Leave MORE head space.. and/or pasteurize at a lower temp. You aren't trying to kill bacteria.. just Yeast.. Even if you go to 165* for 10 minutes, you will kill any remaining yeast and have fewer explosions.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

So as I understand it, you bring the water to 180, add the bottles, and then the water temp drops and everything equalizes in temp until the internal liquid of the bottles (cider) is at pasteurization temp. What is your target temp pre bottles for your water?

 

[Thaumatourge]

Only head space I have needed in my ciders has been the bottling wand displacement.

I would not mind trying out the dishwasher bit. But if a bottle shattered I would have to face swmbo. Plus I have only made 1 gallon batches so far. If the dishwasher does not get hot enough I will loose all my precious liquid very fast.

 

[Keith66]

The dishwasher has worked fine for me on two separate batches of about 60 bottles each. No bombs. Make sure the caps are on tight; they will dome a little from the pressure. Normal headspace, just like a beer. If one breaks, it's no different than breaking a glass or plate; pick the glass out of the filter and move on. The MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is what Pappers said in his original post: if you have gushers, DON'T pasteurize!

 

[Pappers_]

Could I put my cider in my turkey fryer and heat the batch up to 190 and hold it at that temp for 10 min then back sweeten, or would in need to be in bottles? I know the alcohol would start to evaporate at 172. Just trying to figure a way to kill the yeast in a large batch in one shot.


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If you do it this way, there will be no yeast left to bottle condition/carbonate. If you're not going to bottle condition/carbonate, then there's no need to pasturize.

 

[Brewer_Chad]

If you do it this way, there will be no yeast left to bottle condition/carbonate. If you're not going to bottle condition/carbonate, then there's no need to pasturize.

My plan is to keg. But I was thinking of maybe bottling. Thought I might mail some to friends so was thinking to pasteurize the entire batch sweeting then kegging, carbing and putting a few in bottles. Just don't want bombs in mail.


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[Pappers_]

My plan is to keg. But I was thinking of maybe bottling. Thought I might mail some to friends so was thinking to pasteurize the entire batch sweeting then kegging, carbing and putting a few in bottles. Just don't want bombs in mail.


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If you are carbing in the keg, you don't need to pasteurize - just knock the yeast out with the potassium sorbate and metabisulfate (I think those are right) backsweeten, and force carb.

If you are bottle carbing, then you can't pasteurize before bottle carbing - it will kill the yeast and there will be nothing to produce the CO2. You have to pasteurize after bottle carbing is done.

 

[Brewer_Chad]

If you are carbing in the keg, you don't need to pasteurize - just knock the yeast out with the potassium sorbate and metabisulfate (I think those are right) backsweeten, and force carb.



If you are bottle carbing, then you can't pasteurize before bottle carbing - it will kill the yeast and there will be nothing to produce the CO2. You have to pasteurize after bottle carbing is done.

Okay that makes since I'll go that route. Only my second cider first was a still cider; this time I want to try something less dry.


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[skitter]

One thing that was mentioned in another thread was waiting till it ends, add your sorbate and backsweetening in the same time, and theoretically you would get a bit of a fizz without blowing bottles

 

[rushchaser]

Pappers,

Thanks for this write up. I started my first batch of cider two weeks ago after reading this thread. Made 2 jugs using the 365 cider in the glass jug from Whole Foods, added 1/2 cup of white sugar to one, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar to the other. I used a packet of Lavlin EC-1118 yeast that I put in a bowl of some of the juice that I warmed up. After it had formed a layer of foam I pour half into both jugs and put on airlocks. Both airlocks were dancing within a few hours. Let them go for a week, racked each to a separate glass jug, backsweetened with half a can of AJ concentrate and then topped up to 1 Gal with apple juice (roughly 1 pint) and then bottled (9 bottles and one soda bottle per Gal.). That was on Sunday, and Tuesday night the soda bottles (1 from each batch) were hard, so I followed your method and it worked perfectly.

So Thank you for that!

Now just to add for anyone else interested, I then added about a quart of distilled water back to the yeast cake in the jug I had put white sugar in (I like the white sugar version better) swirled it around and let it sit for about 20 minutes as I cleaned up. I then poured off a pint, and let it settle for a bit and then added about a half of cup off the top to each of my jugs, where I had already added back a half can of apple juice concentrate and then filled up with Motts AJ. By the next morning the airlocks were dancing again, and still were this morning!

Thanks for everyone's input in this thread and in the Cider Forum.

Rush

 

[MindenMan]

rushchaser, I have re read your post twice and the second paragraph confuses me, would you explain in another version?

 

[rushchaser]

MindenMan

I basically washed my yeast and reused it. You can search on this site for detailed explanations or check out YT and there are some good videos showing the process. I read about where some other person had done this so I did a Google deep dive on the topic and gave it a try.

Try punching in " How to wash yeast " into the 'ole Google machine and you will find all you need to know!