First explosion

[torilen]

Well, I had a bottle bust on me last night - while we were all asleep. I heard it from upstairs (I keep my bottled stuff in the downstairs 1/2 bathroom, on a shelf above the washer and dryer - nice and temperature controlled, and out of the sun). I thought maybe a picture in my daughter's room had fallen off the wall. Didn't find the mess until this morning.

And what a mess it was. There was only a little bit of ginger beer left in the bottle, so luckily there wasn't too much sugary, alcohol-filled liquid going everywhere. But the glass...oh my goodness, the glass. Everywhere. I think I may have gotten it cleaned up finally, but I am certain I'll be finding chips and shards for weeks to come.

It was an Evans Williams whiskey bottle that I had stored some ginger beer in. I had pasteurized ginger beer...as I do all of the alcohol I bottle. Maybe I just didn't pasteurize it good enough? Maybe the bottle was just a bad choice for storage? I don't know. It has been up on the shelf for a couple of weeks already...but hadn't been opened in a little over two weeks...we were on vacation one week, and when we got back, I had other stuff ready to drink, so I just left it, since I thought it was bottled and shelf-stable.

I had gone to pasteurizing at only 140F a little while ago. I have a couple of canning jars filled on the shelf, however, that were pasteurized at 160F. I think I may have to go back to the 160F pasteurization. I was hoping to stay at 140F, to avoid unnecessary damage and loss of flavor. Perhaps that is just not a safe idea, though.

Any thoughts, suggestions? And yes, I know...pasteurization is kind of a bad word around here with some people...that is the only way I know of ensuring I don't have explosions, though. (At least, I thought so.)

 

[ncbrewer]

The table on this website http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pasteurization-methods-temperatures-d_1642.html only goes down to 145F. 140F might not be hot enough. But since you're doing this, you probably know more about it than I do. What to you do to keep from driving the alcohol off while pasteurizing?

 

[torilen]

I had originally read that around 160F-170F was needed to kill yeast sufficiently. Then I read that yeast dies at 140F. Apparently that was wrong. (hehehehe).

I don't actually boil the alcohol. I have several large canning jars left over from canning jam over the last few years. I put the alcohol in those, and boil the jars. It is fairly gentle and, while the brew gets hot, you see hardly any actually boiling action in the liquid. I also have the tops to those jars that are not usable for canning anymore, since they were used before. As soon as I take the jars out, I put the tops on top to keep any further air from getting to it, and to keep any more alcohol from escape as steam.

I haven't noticed much difference in ABV, though I still don't have a hydrometer...should be getting one in a couple of weeks. Taste difference...I don't think there is much. I know it does change the taste of citrus a bit, and fruit juice loses some of those bonus under-flavors that would normally be there. Pasteurizing is the best I've come up with so far, though, to keep from making bottle bombs.

What I've been thinking about trying out is pasteurizing, and THEN adding whatever I'm going to for backsweetening...that might avoid losing some of those flavors and changing the tastes as much. After this last incident, I'm not so sure about that...I really don't want to go through that again.

I'm fairly happy with what I make to drink. Not sure how other people would feel about it...but I brew mainly for myself, so...I don't know...we'll see what happens in the future.