First time plan + pasteurize in sauna?!

[h_t]

Hi all,

First time cider maker here, please help a newbie.
Tell me if my plan makes sense. I've done a lot of reading, I also made wine in the past.
Sorry, I tend to make it long....

1. First I have this crazy idea, what do you think of pasteurizing cider in sauna?
I have home electrical one, I can control the temp pretty well, what if I put bottles in there and raise the temp to whatever it has to be, 140F?
Have to use glass bottles for pasteurization.


I'd like to make fizzy cider, not too sweet, not too dry. I don't know what SG I like, I don't have hydrometer yet. I like Thornbury Cider for sugar level may be even a bit drier
http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/thornbury-premium-apple-cider/333583#.VBRx2PkZG00

I built a scratter (grinder) and a press. I will get some apples here in Ontario, Canada and juice them. Can't say what types I will get, I will try something with a bit of character if I have any choice and I will try to add some wild apples just for tannin and acidity, perhaps 5-10%. It's bad year for wild apples and perhaps apples in general. Just yesterday I went looking at my usual places for some wild apples for an apple cake and only 2 trees had any fruit.
Anyways. Press the apples. Measure PH.

2. can aquarium PH meter be used?
Hopefully PH won't require adjustment.

Measure SG, I'd like 5-6% alcohol.
3. What SG do I need 1.050-60?

Add Pectin enzyme.
Add Sodium Metabisulphite, need to figure out how much.
Wait 24 hours.
Add Yeast.
4. I figure S-04 or Nottingam?
(I wonder why here I read mostly about beer yeast while Andrew Lea doesn't pay much attention to yeast and says to use generic wine yeast, IIRC)

5. I aim for 2-3 5 gal batches, start in 5 gal HDPE plastic bucket, no air lock, top up after frothing goes down with juice or the same, rack at 1.005 to glass carboys with airlocks for secondary.


6. I understand I have 2 options:
A. bottle with some residual sugar, cold crush or pasteurize.
B. Ferment to dry, back sweeten just before bottling, wait a bit, cold crush or pasteurize. Do I get it right?
For cold crushing, I hope I will be cold enough in the garage by the time I am done fermenting. I do not have room in the fridge, but do have large freezer.

7. Bottling in beer bottles, wine bottles won't work for fizzy. what about plastic soda bottles?

8. Unpasteurized has to be stored cold, pasteurized doesn't matter, right?
Does pasteurization affect the taste?

10. How can I avoid bottling all my cider at once, I won't to minimize the effort and number of bottles. Could I store fermented to dry in carboys and back sweeten when ready to bottle?

I am not interested in kegs and carbonation.

Thanks a lot if anyone made it to the end of my novel

 

[javalin]

Wow, that's a lot of questions my Canadian brother. I'll answer what I can.

1. I guess that would work, don't see why not. You might have bottle bombs go off in your sauna though. Not sure if you want to take that risk.

2.I never measure PH, I don't think cider is as picky as beer is on this point, but that doesn't answer your question.

3. My hydrometer says 1.040. You should also add yeast nutrient here.

4.Champagne yeast and Ale yeast are the most common types used. Ale yeast ferments faster. I've also used lager yeast. They all work well, but I prefer using beer yeasts.

5. I would recommend using airlocks on your buckets so they don't pop and allow free air exchange. The rest is good.

6. Whether you bottle with residual sugars in the cider or ferment to dry and then add a priming sugar you need to wait for the yeast to carbonate the cider before pasteurizing or cold crashing. The garage might be cold enough depends on the weather. I'm not certain what temperature it has to be or what time you'll finish.

7. Soda bottles work great, you don't need to worry about bottle bombs. On the downside you need to be concerned about exposing them to sunlight, and they don't look as cool/appetizing. Drinking booze from a pop bottle just doesn't go down as well.

8. Correct. I don't think it affects the taste. I pasteurize and force carb. Delicious

9. There is no question number nine. Platypus.

10. That would work, some people like to let their cider sit and age in the carboy for months to a year before bottling.

Good novel. The main character needed some rounding out, and you needed some more build to the climax, but overall a decent read.

Cheers.

 

[h_t]

thanks, javalin

 

[phug]

What part of Ontario are you in? Toronto here. I was going to answer questions but that was taken are of so I'll just ask some.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[h_t]

phug, I guess you agree with the provided answers?
I am just north of T - Maple.

 

[phug]

question 1. Yes, it could work, make sure you hit 140F internal bottle temp for at least 30 minutes, maybe one hour is better as overkill. it won't be energy efficient, but it should work. Please do not take a sauna at the same time. I'm not saying it's dangerous, but I can see that ending poorly.

Question 2. I've never tested for PH, couldn't tell you. but I would hope that PH is PH, as long as the strips have an appropriate range to give you meaningful information. (is that fuschia? or pink? I'm not sure)

Question 3. for 6A you would want a juice of at least 1.043 to get a 5% and at most 1.051 with the following assumptions 1.005 finished result, +.002 carbing + a weeny bit of alcohol + .036-.044 for the remainder of the alcohol.

6B start no lower than 1.036 and no higher than 1.048 for a 5.0-6.0 alcohol, ferment to dryness (assuming 1.000, it could be different) and then backsweeten, and add priming sugar.

Question 4. I have more experience with S-04, and it seems to be just jim-dandy. That being said I've also used ec1118, which makes it taste kind of like mildly appley champagne, which is nice if that's what you're going for. I vote S-04

Question 5. Maybe rack it at 1.010 so that you're less likely to miss your target gravity. at least let the lid sit lightly on your bucket to keep dirt, and bugs out, but otherwise go for it.

Question 6. By the time November hits, the night time temps should be cold enough to cold crash in an unheated garage. By December for sure they should be cold enough, BUT you'll risk freezing your cider. Not the end of the world, I have accidentally frozen cider while cold crashing it, I was still able to carb it after thawing.

either of your processes for 6A or 6B will work, but you have to choose, because that impacts your starting point, see #3

Question 7. Javalin is spot on, but go ahead, beer bottles with pry offs, or swingtops, or pop bottles, or perrier/ fizzy water bottles.

Question 8. What Javalin said, but yeah, unpasteurized, you'll have to keep chilled or you risk bombs.

Question 9. Question number 9 is a lie.

Question 10. You don't have to bottle it all at once, provided that you can store the unbottle portion in a glass carboy with limited headspace. So store it in the appropriate sized container. You may want to siphon the unbottling portion into your long term carboy (how long term?) up to the level desired, and THEN measure the rest, and your priming sugar, and backsweetening amount, and bottle that.

Anything that you leave to bottle later, you'll have to use the 6B option with fermenting dry and backsweetening. so maybe get practice with the first portion that way and save yourself soem trial and error by sticking with one process the whole way through.

 

[h_t]

huh, marvelous, see, you just had a little typing to do
(since y'all so funny around here, must be well cidrated all the time, like those kids in movie Snatch (was it?), they were growing pot and stoned all the time)

very useful, thank you.