To pasteurize or use chemicals?

[tubalcain]

I have made apple wine, with some success. I pasteurized the cider, 60 gallons, @140 degrees (multiple batches). It worked. Would the use of chemical additives be just as effective? My intention was to kill the native yeast. Or maybe I'm wrong?

 

[winemaker81]

I use sorbate + K-meta when backsweetening, and never had a problem.

I'm not in favor of heating wine.

 

[tubalcain]

I use sorbate + K-meta when backsweetening, and never had a problem.

I'm not in favor of heating wine.

I had a great amount of trepidation about heating the cider, but the result was good. Lots of work seemed to be the drawback. It's supposed to kill the natural yeast.

 

[winemaker81]

Heat will kill the yeast.

I have concern with heat negatively affecting flavor and/or aroma.

A good experiment is to pasteurize part of a batch and compare the before and after wines at 3 and 6 month marks.

 

[JB1956]

I have made apple wine, with some success. I pasteurized the cider, 60 gallons, @140 degrees (multiple batches). It worked. Would the use of chemical additives be just as effective? My intention was to kill the native yeast. Or maybe I'm wrong?

I make yearly batches of apple wine using unpasteurized cider from a local Ohio orchard. The orchard keeps the cider refrigerated to just above freezing. Maybe I’ve been lucky but I’ve never found the need to pasteurize it or use Kmeta to kill the native yeast. My recipe is to add some pectic enzyme then ferment the cider until it’s dry with EC1118 yeast. It seems like once the EC1118 gets rolling the native yeast doesn't stand a chance.
After fermentation is complete I rack it to a carboy and back-sweeten to taste by adding more cider. I give it a dose of Kmeta and potassium sorbate to stop additional fermentation then to speed things up I clear it using Dual-Fine (chitosan and kieselsol).
It’s quick, cheap, and easy, and makes excellent apple wine.

 

[tubalcain]

I make yearly batches of apple wine using unpasteurized cider from a local Ohio orchard. The orchard keeps the cider refrigerated to just above freezing. Maybe I’ve been lucky but I’ve never found the need to pasteurize it or use Kmeta to kill the native yeast. My recipe is to add some pectic enzyme then ferment the cider until it’s dry with EC1118 yeast. It seems like once the EC1118 gets rolling the native yeast doesn't stand a chance.
After fermentation is complete I rack it to a carboy and back-sweeten to taste by adding more cider. I give it a dose of Kmeta and potassium sorbate to stop additional fermentation then to speed things up I clear it using Dual-Fine (chitosan and kieselsol).
It’s quick, cheap, and easy, and makes excellent apple wine.

This is why I'm here, to learn. I've read that the 1118 will rule over the natives. I nearly max out the sugar in order to let the 1118 reach that 17 percent. Your formula nearly matches mine except to skip the pasteurization process. It looks like a lot less work this year! Thank you.

 

[winemaker81]

This is why I'm here, to learn. I've read that the 1118 will rule over the natives. I nearly max out the sugar in order to let the 1118 reach that 17 percent. Your formula nearly matches mine except to skip the pasteurization process. It looks like a lot less work this year! Thank you.

I misunderstood -- I thought you were pasteurizing after fermentation, not before.

Most if not all commercial yeast will stomp out competition from wild yeast. EC-1118 has the killer factor, so it's especially hard on the competition.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I like the answers above. Yeast with a high “kill factor “ will dominate a fermentation. I use metabisulphite on everything because it is in the recipes I started with and seems to be essential later when creating a reduced environment for the alcohol.

To your pasturing, there is a type of infection done by wild lactic acid bacteria that you should eliminate by pasteurizing. ,,, but then 18% alcohol should do the same thing.