Pasteurisation

[good4whatAlesU]

I read that many of the commercial breweries pasteurise their beer post fermentation before /during bottling.
Does anyone have experience with this and /or consider any advantage to increase shelf life from ageing home brew?
Theoretically not that difficult, heat the beer to 60 -70c for 30-40 seconds?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Theory is easy...

There is a reason why home brewers dont pasteurise...

 

[danestead]

Usually the beers you would want to age are high in alcohol. There shouldn't be any reason why you need to pasturise your beer, assuming you practice proper sanitation processes.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Agreed I was just reading somewhere that it's a requirement of some retailers /distributors and wondered if craft guys did it too. Must put the cost up a bit when margins are already tight...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Dont know of any craft breweries that are required to do it

I looked at setting up a Micro/Craft Brewery a while back and nothing was stated for the requirement to pasteurise

Coopers dont pasteurise their beer

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Not a legislated requirement but I think most of the big guys do it. Some of the small ones too, probably helps lower insurance and increase shelf life. Coopers do well to avoid it but they likely have a rapid enough turnover and margin that their beer won't sit longer than 12 months.

 

[GalBrew]

Ha!

 

[MHB]

Mate you need to do a lot more reading up on Pasteurisation.
Pasteurisation kills everything in the bottle (well nearly) including yeast so its not a good option for bottle conditioned beers (rules out most home brewers and Coopers). Big breweries are filtering their beer and its all about presentation, in fact filtered Pasteurised beer tends to have a shorter shelf life than bottle conditioned beer mostly due to ongoing oxidisation.
Nearly all of your speculation in the post above is completely wrong and/or arse about, next time you have a brain wave, Google the subject, or read the Wikipedia entry, it will help people think your posts might be worth reading.
Mark

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

^ What he said

Agreed I was just reading somewhere that it's a requirement of some retailers /distributors and wondered if craft guys did it too. Must put the cost up a bit when margins are already tight...

Thats bullshit

 

[timmi9191]

Whenever the subject of pasteurisation comes up in discussion I refer back to the heinekin commercial where its tasted the same...

It tastes the same coz they process and pasteurised the shite out of everything so to remove seasonal change in malt and hop flavours..

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Whoa! Cool your jets gentlemen (and i use the term loosely). MHB needs to have a sit down and a cool drink,
It's certainly not BS that some brewers use it, and it's certainly not BS that it must have a cost.
Whether or not it's a retailers suggestion may have been misplaced, but as i said i read in the following article that some retailers may insist on a decent shelf life, which some brewers use pasteurisation for.

http://www.tastingbeers.com/school/beer_production/12008584.html

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Agreed I was just reading somewhere that it's a requirement of some retailers /distributors and wondered if craft guys did it too. Must put the cost up a bit when margins are already tight...

Whoa! Cool your jets gentlemen (and i use the term loosely). MHB needs to have a sit down and a cool drink,
It's certainly not BS that some brewers use it, and it's certainly not BS that it must have a cost.
Whether or not it's a retailers suggestion may have been misplaced, but as i said i read in the following article that some retailers may insist on a decent shelf life, which some brewers use pasteurisation for.

http://www.tastingbeers.com/school/beer_production/12008584.html

Some breweries do use it. mainly the BIG 2.

And it aint a requirement either.

And MHB does actually know his stuff

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Lol he may do and he may not.. Doesn't give him the right to be an A-hole.

I can see this forum is going to be fun

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Lol he may do and he may not.. Doesn't give him the right to be an A-hole.

I can see this forum is going to be fun

Welcome to the Asylum B)

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Passionate men who drink.... What could go wrong

 

[TheWiggman]

Before alleging or challenging anything I think the question of 'what is the purpose of pasteurising beer' should be asked. It's not milk, the reasons behind it are completely different and the choice of the brewer. Tooheys/Catlton/XXXX/West End etc wouldn't bother with the significant cost and trouble of pasteurising if there wasn't a damn good reason for it, and the reason isn't legislation. They do it primarily to cease biological activity inside the bottle to basically kill off fermentation, preventing bottle bombs and infection (correct me if I'm wrong). This ensures a more consistent product for the customers - which is what they expect - but as MHB says at risk of accelerating oxidation. Those mobs have enough control over the process though to keep that low.

 

[MHB]

Just went back and reread the thread, and yes you got one thing right, there is a cost to pasteurisation.
The rest is wrong, misinformed, ill-informed or just arse about misunderstanding, considering the BS content I think I was being reasonably polite.

AHB is an interesting place, there are a lot of people here who know a hell of a lot about brewing and who are more than willing to help other brewers with any problems, if you want to know something ask a question or better do a little basic research.

But open a new thread on your second day as a member, well its only got three lines and each one demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the subject
Bottled beer is pasteurised in the bottle, look up tunnel pasteurisation
Pasteurised beers are more stable than bottle conditioned beers but often have shorter shelf life - stay "the same longer" not last longer. Its more about looks!
One minute at 60oC gives about 1Pu of sterilisation, you need something like 150Pu to 450Pu for problem beers. 30-40 seconds at 60-70oC isn't going to cut the mustard.

You might want to read up on Pasteurisation Units (Pu) and Sterilisation units - pretty fundamental to sterilising beer.
Like I said if you have questions or want to discuss brewing I hope you enjoy AHB - sprout crap and you will get called.
Mark

 

[good4whatAlesU]

People make posts and ask questions because they would like to learn something.
Condescending people like you get your anger out by patronising them.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Basically..

The Big 2 pasteurise to keep the beer "stable" for a given period of time...more marketing and sales driven so that Joe Average gets the same tasting beer everytime. But you need good turnover to keep it "fresh"

Pasteurisation is detrimental to the long term storage & maturation of beer so its not something you want to do

To pasteurise a small batch would be a major task to do it properly.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Thanks Stu. That's what i was after.