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Do you know whether low pressure boiling can kill bacteria?

I guess mechanically yes, thermally no (if you're below pasteurization temperature). My intuition would be that mechanical bacteria killing is always going to be < 100% efficient, so eventually they will be back in force.

Potentially good enough, though? A proper pitch rate of whatever you actually want in there is going to help with outcompeting any undesirables.

My understanding is that most infections in commercial brewing are usually on the bottling/canning line - Since you've got a smaller volume, the "bad" bacteria or yeast make up a larger total percentage of organisms. Especially if sodium metabisulfite has been used prior to the packaging, since now anything that gets in there is running free by itself.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cleaning-water-wit... I think that doesn't apply here, the concept is that CHC purifies the liquid. I'm not sure how much I like that, but I agree that changing the boiling point wouldn't mean that bacteria are irradiated at boil.

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