Is it necessary to do pasteurisation after degorgement?

[The_italian_cider_maker]

Hi all cider makers!
I've a big doubt.
I've done the degorgement after secondary fermentation in bottle, and I left some residual sugar to balance the taste in a mid sweet cider.

In your opinion, is it necessary to do pasteurisation or I've removed all the yeast with the degorgement procedure?

Thank you all as usual!

 

[Jacob_Marley]

If you had sufficiently used up the nutrients present in the cider during the fermentations ... and you've fermented to dryness ... and you've waited a sufficient amount of time for the yeast to expire (said to be "weeks to months" ... for example, with champagne "several months") ... and therefor your disgorgement was of all the yeast, now dead.
In that case you would not need to take further action to insure that there is no further fermentation.

However ...
You did not state how long you waited during the "aging" stage (the period between secondary fermentation and riddling/disgorging) and you said you've "left some residual sugar" (!) .....
If your cider's ABV% did not kill the yeast ... and you did not keeve to remove nutrients and kill the yeast ... and you did not stabilize chemically to "neuter" the yeast ............... then I would say you might have problems.

Wines which are disgorged are fermented to dryness first and then given that period of time for the yeast to expire as noted above.

In winemaking, the backsweetening is done *after* disgorgement ... (and cidermaking is a form of winemaking.)
No "residual sweetness" is left ... sweetness is from backsweetening.

True, different yeasts may have different longevity abilities ... however if you left residual sweetness in the cider, I'd say the potential for fermentation is likely still there.

So, yes ... I'd say pasteurize.
Even though heat pasteurization is not desirable with cider as it tends to destroy some of the subtle character of the cider, it is not horrible. Alternately, you could try to chemically stabilize using sorbate + sulfite ... but again, this can change the flavor, and difficult to do in the bottle (I'd avoid it).

Or you could just wing it and leave at room temp a portion of your bottled ciders (keep the rest in the icebox to prevent further pressurization) and periodically open a bottle of the warm stuff to see if it now spoozes all over the place ... and if so, take the rest out of cold storage and pasteurize then.

 

[Kees]

I don't think champagne producers pasturize after disgorging. Even if they want to make sweet champagne. So they must have found a way to remove all the yeast cells. If you manage to do the same you needn't pasteurize.

 

[CKuhns]

You could filter to less than 0.45 micron. A vineyard i toured did that. I havd tried it using a gravity fed system i rigged up. But due to time and mess went back to pasrteurizing. A filter and pump was just too much cash for me to justify.

 

[mashpaddled]

If you correctly disgorged there should not be yeast left in the bottle.

Depending on the type of bottle you used the worst that may happen is the cider further dries out and becomes more effervescent. If the bottle isn't rated for higher pressure they may explode. True champagne bottles designed for that process hold up to an insanely high pressure. If these are other types of sparkling wine bottles I would be concerned depending on how much residual sugar is left in the bottles.