'Check dis out...'

In the quest to make an accepable medium/sweet conditioned cider (tch, why can't people just enjoy it as it comes..?) I'm gearing up for some pasteurisation trials. The controlled heating of the bottled cider at 65 degrees C is apparently sufficient to kill any remaining yeast organisms thus stabilising the contents.
Anyroad up, "as it 'appens lad...", years back I used to make a few candles and adapted a Baby Burco water heater to melt wax. It's a simple enough operation to add a basic bain marie type bulb thermostat as seen in this link:

basic Arthermo bulb thermostat control as sold by Hawco in the UK

So after much rumaging and plenty of cussing (but no wailing, though some minor gnashing of teeth...) in the morrass of the garage... Da dah, the former hobby comes up trumps:


(black knob is temperature control)

Holds 12 bottles (without touching sides) and has room for a test bottle in the middle:



Checking hysterisis (difference between lowest and highest temperature)



There are concerns that bottles containing conditioned cider are already under some pressure and that raised temperature suggests that the pressure increase could result in burst bottles when being handled - in that it is recommended that the bottles be laid on their sides while still hot. I intend getting round this by constructing some form of containing cage...

This is new territory for me so I need to get my thinking cap on.

Pasteurisation (..ization?) can tend to give the drink a caramelly edge but the trade off may well be worth it...