Yeast Shipping Gel Ice Packs - What is the gel?

I'm no chemist, but...what exactly is that stuff? It says "do not eat", but I was thinking, why let it go to waste? It can't taste that bad, right?

So what is the stuff? And how toxic is it? And if a half-teaspoon or so fell into your hot wort, would it kill you?

Bumpety bump...

I've always thought the gel was gelatin, like Jelo. But with todays use of chemicals, I wouldn't assume that any more. I don't know if they use gel because it has a higher specific heat, or because it just doesn't run all over as it melts.

Try Googling it, there is probably more info out there than you could expect from a specialist forum like this.

Might be something like this:

http://www.roshgo.com/msds/MSDS-Temtro-Dry-Gel.html
... producing their own Gel Ice Packs,

Section VI - Health Hazard Data
===================================================================
Router(s) of Entry:
Inhalation? Yes
Skin? No
Ingestion? No
...
"Ingestion: Drink copious amounts of water and consult physician."

It's not a health hazard if you eat it, but consult a physician anyway ?

Maybe it's ok, if you dilute it in enough beer.

I'm curious about a lot of things but "I wonder what would happen if some gel cold pack stuff fell into my beer" has never been one of them.

Are you trying to make a gel beer that will stay cold longer?

Lil' Sparky said:

I'm curious about a lot of things but "I wonder what would happen if some gel cold pack stuff fell into my beer" has never been one of them.

Are you trying to make a gel beer that will stay cold longer?

Click to expand...

Better head retention.

Lil' Sparky said:

I'm curious about a lot of things but "I wonder what would happen if some gel cold pack stuff fell into my beer" has never been one of them.

Are you trying to make a gel beer that will stay cold longer?

Click to expand...

No, one of them had punctured while sitting in the sink and I didn't know it. When I went to move them out of the way, about 1/2 teaspoon of the goop splattered into my wort (I use my 50L MLT to chill my wort, so that I can strain the hops right out of it from there, and I don't have a lid to the MLT). It was right off the burner, so it was still hot enough so that I wasn't worried about infection/contamination from organics. I was just wondering what it was made from, and whether it's something to be concerned about in such a high dilution (1/2 tsp in 5 gallons). I'm guessing it's not, but just wanted to see if anyone knew any more than me.

david_42 said:

Might be something like this:

http://www.roshgo.com/msds/MSDS-Temtro-Dry-Gel.html
... producing their own Gel Ice Packs,

Section VI - Health Hazard Data
===================================================================
Router(s) of Entry:
Inhalation? Yes
Skin? No
Ingestion? No
...
"Ingestion: Drink copious amounts of water and consult physician."

It's not a health hazard if you eat it, but consult a physician anyway ?

Maybe it's ok, if you dilute it in enough beer.

Click to expand...

I doubt it. The AHS stuff isn't "dry gel".

The dry powder is used to make the gel. Regardless, I'm guessing on the composition, since I don't know who made your packs. That is a very common chemical used in gel packs, but your mileage will vary.

david_42 said:

The dry powder is used to make the gel. Regardless, I'm guessing on the composition, since I don't know who made your packs. That is a very common chemical used in gel packs, but your mileage will vary.

Click to expand...

I think we are talking two completly different gels here. The cold packs are a jelly. The dry desicant packs are a silicon crystaline compound that soaks up moisture from the air to prevent staling, clumping, or rusting. The jelly stuff might be food grade, the desicant may be poisonous. I doubt they are the same.

20 minutes of googling didn't find the actual ingredients in cold packs. But all sites mentioned "non toxic", none "caution poison".

Open one and do a Iodine test? No, gels and gums are usually proteins, like pectin?

Hmmm, you might have made Gummi Bear Beer?

casebrew said:

I think we are talking two completly different gels here. The cold packs are a jelly. The dry desicant packs are a silicon crystaline compound that soaks up moisture from the air to prevent staling, clumping, or rusting. The jelly stuff might be food grade, the desicant may be poisonous. I doubt they are the same.

20 minutes of googling didn't find the actual ingredients in cold packs. But all sites mentioned "non toxic", none "caution poison".

Open one and do a Iodine test? No, gels and gums are usually proteins, like pectin?

Hmmm, you might have made Gummi Bear Beer?

Click to expand...

Perhaps, though 1/2 tsp to 5.5 gals seems a bit too diluted to make much of a diff.

http://www.roshgo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?page=rc01/CTGY/00100

"Simply add water to the TEMTRO™ Dry Gel crystals to make Gel Ice Packs"