Pasteurization in bottles

[Ted]

When I bottle I add priming sugar to beer and then bottle. Once it referments and carbonates I'd like to try pasteurize the beer to kill anything wild in it. I can't store cold and invariably there are some contamenents in the bottle. I was thinking of placing a number of bottles in my brewpot and on the stove slowly bring the temp up to under the boil and hold for 10-15 min.
Has anyone tried this?? I was thinking of trying this with a commercial beer and tasting the difference don't know if I'm going to get a 'cooked' taste or not. Not really sure if the bottles won't explode, obviously I'd leave the lid on.
Maybe this is somthing that would work with a barleywine or stout but not a hef, etc.
Ted

[Ted]

Well that didn't exactly work. I put a bottle of commercial dunkleweiss in a pot with water and slowly brought temp up. I stepped away from the pot for a few minutes to care for my son and herd a pretty good pop. Killed the heat and opened the pot to see what I had. The bottle held but the lid poped off and hit the lid with a good amount of force. I think the temp was close to 175ish. I think I'm going to take a packet of dry yeast, mix it with water and just table sugar, put it in a bottle, cap it; and try again, paying closer attention to temp looks like I can get to 145F and hold for about 30 min. Then just let the bottle sit for a week or so and see what I get. Obviosly if there is any carbonation (ie fermentation) at all it didn't work.I'm nearly positive that the bottle lid held at 145, I don't think it blew until closer to 180. We'll see what happens.
Ted

[brewerTristan]

Wouldn't pasteurizing bottle conditioned beers kill the yeast and thus contribute autolysis-like off flavours?

[Mylo]

What if you filtered and/or used some potassium metabisulfite, forced carbonated, and CPF from bottles... sounds like it would work to me.


Mylo

[brewinhard]

Can potassium metabisulfate be tasted in a beer? If not, wouldn't that be a good way to kill off any infections that a beer might pick up as it is added in wine?

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

Ted,
If your sanitation/cleaning regimen is good, your beers should be fine at room temp, or even a bit higher, for quite a while without picking up any infection. They can really be at room temp for months without much of a problem. They will oxidize quicker, but that wouldn't be helped by pasteurization either.
I would concentrate on making sure your cleaning and sanitation is awesome, if it's not already, instead of putting your energy into pasteurizing homebrew. And if you have infected brew that is still fairly drinkable, just try to drink it up fast!
Hope that helps...

[mordantly]

to pasteurize, you hold at 150F for at least 30 mins.