Will pasteurized cider continue to age?

[dcrookston]

So I bottled my first cider about a month ago. Decided to open one on Christmas to see how it's doing. It's basically colored JP8 at this point. If I pasteurized them, will they continue to develop in the bottle? Or are they going to stay that way forever, now?

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

Apparently stove top pasteurization doesn't alter the flavor of the cider. So you should be able to do this (if the carbonation is where you want it) and it should age in the bottle just fine.

What were your gravity readings and what recipe did you use?

 

[dcrookston]

I didn't do any gravity readings. I just let it ferment out (straight apple cider, Red Star champagne yeast, 1tsp nutrient) then racked to secondary for a week, then bottled. I suppose since I am now apparently serious about this, I should by one of those things-you-read-gravity-with and learn how to use them, and what the readings mean.

This may also help prevent the bottle bombs I had just the other day. THAT was fun.

 

[UpstateMike]

I didn't do any gravity readings. I just let it ferment out (straight apple cider, Red Star champagne yeast, 1tsp nutrient) then racked to secondary for a week, then bottled. I suppose since I am now apparently serious about this, I should by one of those things-you-read-gravity-with and learn how to use them, and what the readings mean.

This may also help prevent the bottle bombs I had just the other day. THAT was fun.

If you had bottle bombs, then I don't think it was done fermenting. Stove top pasteurizing will put a stop to the fermenting and prevent bottle bombs. And yeah, you do need a hydrometer.

 

[dinnerstick]

to go back to the original question, yes- from my admittedly limited experience ageing/aging? a pasteurized cider (1 batch from last year) it has matured in the bottle as expected in a year.

 

[dcrookston]

If you had bottle bombs, then I don't think it was done fermenting. Stove top pasteurizing will put a stop to the fermenting and prevent bottle bombs. And yeah, you do need a hydrometer.

If you mean it wasn't done fermenting when I bottled it, you are correct and it was on purpose. I was trying to create a sweet, sparkling cider by bottling it while fermentation was still "quite active", waiting a brief period of time (8 hours in this case), and then pasteurizing to stop fermentation after carbonation but before sugar depletion. P=V*T, so when T goes up and V stays the same... bottles explode.

These are two different batches. One caused the original post and was depleted when bottled. I pasteurized because I wasn't convinced I'd sanitized the bottles well enough and didn't want vinegar. That's not the one I meant when I talked about exploding bottles.

 

[tobinobin]

If you mean it wasn't done fermenting when I bottled it, you are correct and it was on purpose. I was trying to create a sweet, sparkling cider by bottling it while fermentation was still "quite active", waiting a brief period of time (8 hours in this case), and then pasteurizing to stop fermentation after carbonation but before sugar depletion. P=V*T, so when T goes up and V stays the same... bottles explode.

These are two different batches. One caused the original post and was depleted when bottled. I pasteurized because I wasn't convinced I'd sanitized the bottles well enough and didn't want vinegar. That's not the one I meant when I talked about exploding bottles.

Apologies if I'm wrong...I'm still pretty new to this but if you pasteurize after carbonation...wouldn't carbonation be lost because of the heat?

 

[Pumbaa]

Apologies if I'm wrong...I'm still pretty new to this but if you pasteurize after carbonation...wouldn't carbonation be lost because of the heat?

not if it is already bottled because the gas would have no where to escape to. It would be forced into the dead space but then over time as it cools off it will be re-absorbed into the cider.

 

[tobinobin]

not if it is already bottled because the gas would have no where to escape to. It would be forced into the dead space but then over time as it cools off it will be re-absorbed into the cider.

Ahh I see - what kind of flavour changes would this cause?

 

[Pumbaa]

I wouldnt expect any changes