Swollen Sous Vide Magnet

[Clint Yeastwood]

I used a sous vide magnet for dry-hopping. Took it out of the beer after transfer, I saw what you see in the picture.

I couldn't tell whether it was swollen with beer or CO2, so I cut the cover off. Turned out the magnet was dry, so it was full of CO2. I guess I gave it the bends when I dropped the keg pressure from 10 psi to 0.

Anyone else seen this?

 

[Broken Crow]

Any idea what it's made of?

 

[Bassman2003]

I see similar behavior when I use Foodsaver bags to seal the magnets. I think the CO2 permeates the plastic and an expansion is created which shows when you lower the pressure upon opening the vessel. It will probably go back to normal over time as the CO2 comes back out.

Glad the magnet was dry so they can be used again.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I was relieved to know the metal didn't touch beer. There is a lot of boring info on the web as to how bad that would be, but whatever the truth is, I am against it.

 

[Bassman2003]

It seems the dry hopping under pressure routine is a challenge. I purchased some of these magnets in hopes of getting beyond the puffing of my Foodsaver sealing of loose magnets. I guess they are fine as only the CO2 gas gets inside while leaving the liquid on the outside. Can you keep us posted on if the other magnets you did not cut open return to normal?

 

[Beerstein]

I've seen that when I use them in pressure vessels. I just throw them out at that point.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I have one in a keg right now. Should be out in a few days.

 

[scogan]

Is the answer to use a teaspoon with the hops and place the magnets on the outside ?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Let's see. You want something nonreactive in the beer. That rules out carbon steel. Is there a food grade stainless that will be drawn to a magnet strongly enough to hold a bag of hops against a keg lid?

I think the sous vide magnets will be fine since they well up but don't let liquid in. I guess they'll need time to decompress after every fermentation.

 

[OleBrewing]

how about stir plate magnets. come in a variety of sizes.

 

[SBENCIV]

I used a sous vide magnet for dry-hopping. Took it out of the beer after transfer, I saw what you see in the picture.

I couldn't tell whether it was swollen with beer or CO2, so I cut the cover off. Turned out the magnet was dry, so it was full of CO2. I guess I gave it the bends when I dropped the keg pressure from 10 psi to 0.

Anyone else seen this?

I use those exact magnets and they do the same thing to me when I ferment under pressure. I just let them get back to equilibrium, clean, sanitize, and reuse. I've had no issues to date.

 

[cactusgarrett]

I use the same ones and get the same thing when dry hopping with them in mesh bags. I haven't correlated them doing this with pressure, so I suppose I'll have to track that.

 

[DuncB]

Mine do the same, they return to normal volume when at atmospheric pressure.
No leakage of liquid occurs and I have weighed the magnets before and after this phenomenon and no change in weight so I've assumed gas permeation all along.
I use the sous vide inside fermentasaurus and hard drive magnet on the outside.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I learned about these magnets from the Youtube channel Homebrew4Life. I think he was doing fermentation without pressure, so that would explain why I was surprised.