Stopping Fermentation

[RichardNDL]

You all have convinced me that once fermentation starts, you just let it go to a natural end, and then backsweeten if it's too dry. I saw, on the cider forum, something about stovetop pasteurization. Basically, heating the cider to 140 degrees or something to kill off the yeast. Does that work with Mead? What problems does it cause?

 

[bernardsmith]

I can see two "catastrophic" issues when you pasteurize at normal pressure. Issue #1: When you cook wine (or cider) you change (spoil?) the flavor. Certainly cooking honey destroys the flavors that presumably you have spent a great deal of money in obtaining but if that doesn't bother you then that ain't a problem. Me? I would prefer to use table sugar rather than strip flavor from the honey, It's much less expensive than honey, but it's your honey, your mead and what you enjoy you enjoy.

Issue #2: Unless you have removed all the CO2 saturating your mead before you bottle, when you heat gas in a closed bottle the expanding gas increases the pressure on the bottle or on the cork or cap. Expanding gas can shatter the bottle (worst case) or can force the cork to blow out with a loss of the contents of the bottle. One bottle exploding in a pot with several glass bottles can shatter the other bottles. If a loss of your mead is not a problem and if flying shards of glass is not a concern then no problem.
Bottom line, selecting the amount of honey for a brut dry fermentation and then back sweetening would seem to prevent either issue. (Brewers tend to love to play with fire and I would bet that almost every cider maker that "pasteurizes" a cider is basically a brewer making cider. Historically, and conventionally, wine makers tend not to "brew" anything other than coffee or tea - fire and heat is not something a wine maker really needs).

 

[CKuhns]

@bernardsmith and I generally agree on most things and in this case i would suggest we will as well. He, may very well correct in his assessment. "When you cook wine (or cider) you change (spoil?) the flavor."
However... I have pasteurized both Cider and Mead and as Bernard mentioned pasteurization might change the flavor profile some. BUT, my relatively untrained pallet can not notice a discernable flavor difference. Others with more of a perfected pallet may not agree. I would encourage you to try a test on a bottle or two to develop your own POV.

Oh and to point #2 - Totally agree - I only pasteurize at an FG of 1.000 or less and "still" OR immediately after adding honey to sweeten. Occasionally, a bottle does break while pasteurizing (I think to thermal shock or stress of the glass) but with no pressure just kind of makes a mess in your hot water bath and has no impact to surrounding bottles.
(2 broken bottles out of roughly 500) - I use Amber long neck beer bottles, crown caps a rack in the bottom of the pot to keep the bottle off direct contact with the heats source and "condition" or "temper" them in hot water from the tap prior to placing them in the pasteurization pot.

Finally - Look up the "sticky" from Pappers on the cider forum that is a good place to start if you do intend to try it.

 

[bernardsmith]

Clearly it IS possible to "pasteurize" a wine or mead to kill the yeast and clearly people do it. But clearly there are accidents and there is risk and determining your ABV by determining the amount of fermentables you provide, fermenting to brut dry and then back sweetening is the standard practice used in wine making.

 

[Seamonkey84]

If you tried to do this with an active fermention, you’ll have to go through several steps to clear (cold crash) and degas first. Trying to degas a cold liquid is going to take a long time, and the fermentation will start back up (ever so slowly since you removed most of the yeast) when you warm it up.

 

[AzOr]

I’ve pasteurized quite a few batches of session meads.
There is definitely a risk, however I still prefer this method over chemically stabilizing.
I don’t like backsweetenjng higher gravity meads but that’s just preference.
I will say that I pasteurize all my ciders so I have the equipment for it. This last Sunday I bottled and pasteurized 15 gallons and experienced my first bottle bombs.
It wasn’t a huge deal- one made a slight pop and broke in the large pot filled with water. The other broke after I pulled from pot and was cooling down.
I’ve been heating to mid 140’s. I can probably get away with upper 130’s for a longer period. Prior to this I’ve only had caps pop off- which at first can be a pretty scary sound.

Commercial ciders use heat pasteurization often. Although they will typically use a large dishwashing machine like thing.