Pasteurizing before backsweetening?

[YellowSubmarine]

All the info I can find about pasteurisation is for sparkling cider. This batch is still, and I'm happy with it except I wouldn't mind it being a bit sweeter.
Is it ok to pasteurise before adding more sugar to taste? Is there some reason why people don't seem to do that?
Thanks

 

[Maylar]

Some people do that. Heat pasteurizing before bottling has the potential of changing the taste and / or boiling off alcohol. If you can control temperature accurately, it should be OK but most people just use K-meta and K-sorbate.

 

[MarkKF]

I would only heat pasteurize in sealed bottles. You can't loose anything, alcohol, taste, smell, to evaporation that way.

 

[bernardsmith]

I would only heat pasteurize in sealed bottles. You can't loose anything, alcohol, taste, smell, to evaporation that way.

Why can't heat destroy taste and aroma molecules when the bottle is sealed? The problem is not simply one of evaporation but the action of the heat on the cider itself. Would you pasteurize quality wine? (That is done for very specific religious reasons among Orthodox Jews (the wine is labeled as Yayin Mevushal and is then not subject to all the stringencies of regular wine) but the consensus is that the wine IS degraded when subject to pasteurization.

 

[MarkKF]

I wasn't thinking about wine. Just beer & cider. And I'm sure heat can affect smell and taste. But at least they can't be boiled off.

 

[MindenMan]

The one possible caveat to pasteurizing first and back sweetening after is if there is anything at all in your sweetener that could cause fermentation to re-start, you may have bottle bombs waiting for you.

 

[Maylar]

The one possible caveat to pasteurizing first and back sweetening after is if there is anything at all in your sweetener that could cause fermentation to re-start, you may have bottle bombs waiting for you.

I dunno of any sweeteners that have yeast in them. Can't get bottle bombs with dead yeasties.