Are they dead yet?

[Papagayo]

I'm getting ready to blend and then bottle a lot of what I've got from last fall. Some stuff I'll leave dry and some I'll back sweeten. As for the back sweetening, I'm planning on using two techniques to see which I like best: potassium sorbate + SO2 and heat pasteurization. However, I've been wondering if there's a way to do it without heat, chemicals, a non-fermentable sugar, filtering, keeving or cold crashing. The other day I read something that seemed like a solution.

I read in Annie Proulx's book that if you wait long enough before bottling, the yeast will die and then you can rack off and sweeten with no risk of re-initiating fermentation. The book is somewhat vague on the time line. It says about six months. I had never heard this before and it seems like a great way to back sweeten. However, I don't see any way of confirming that the yeast are dead other than adding some sugar to see, which I'm not keen on doing.

The stuff I've been working with has been in bulk storage since racked off primary fermentation in November, soon to be about five months. All carboys have a light sediment at the bottom and have cleared as much as they're going to.

Does anyone know anything about this or know any way to confirm that the yeast are dead without adding some sugar?

 

[scinerd3000]

Personally for ciders im not a fan of so2. I can always taste the stuff as well as sorbate. I did my last cider and cold crashed it at 30 degrees to drop it crystal clear and still had some bottles with slight fizzle to them. I had a batch of apfelwein i forgot about for almost a full year and it still carbonated with no addiotonal yeast

 

[Ravenshead]

The easiest way would be to take a small sample in your hydrometer tube, add sugar to it and see what happens. You should be able to tell either by taking hydrometer readings or put a balloon over the tube and see if it's building up pressure. You should be able to tell over night.

 

[wildman]

Still or sparking? That's what we need to know.

 

[Papagayo]

Still. I'm going to force carbonate.

 

[wildman]

Sweet an fizzy in a bottle. Yep hard to do. Nope time will not kill yeast. My cider sits all winter and has a nice carb in 3 short days. Sounds like you've already done your homework.

Do you have the 3rd edition of her book? I've read the first 2 many a time and don't remember that.

 

[LakewoodBrew]

I would just heat pasteurize personally. It's a sure thing and can be done quickly to minimize any flavor changes. Just run it through a small diameter copper or stainless steel tube. Make the tube go over a burner, then into a water bath or connect to your chiller.. you should be golden.

 

[Papagayo]

Yes, I have the third edition. I guess she made some additions from the second.

Thanks for all the ideas. I've basically decided to heat pasteurize. Now it's just a questions of the mechanics. I like your idea about the tubing over the burner, but I've never done anything like that before. I would really appreciate it if you could give some more detailed instructions. Also, how can you be sure that you've got the right heat for enough time, or conversely, that you're not scorching your cider? Thanks again.

 

[oldmate]

There is a sticky at the top of this forum outlining the simplest way of pasteurising.

 

[Papagayo]

Thanks. I've read the sticky, but I'm looking to bulk-pasteurize. Any suggestions on that front would be appreciated.

 

[oldmate]

Unless you have something to heat your vessel, then I have no idea how one would accomplish that. Maybe Lakewood Brew was onto something. Sorry!