Continuous degassing using rough materials

[Miraculix]

Hi!

As we all know, CO2 is not the yeasts best friend and during the process of making mead we are degassing the soon to be mead as often as possible via stirring and shaking. I thought about how unconvenient this is and thought about other possibilities.

Have you guys ever had those etched/scratched/carved san miguel glasses which have a logo at the bottom at the inside of the glass? This logo is really really rough, like glas which has been scratched with sandpaper.

This rough spot permanently provides places where CO2 can build nucleotides and bubble out of the beer. The result is a nice foam and a beer going flat relatively quickly. The etched spot is forcing the CO2 out of solution.

My idea is now introducing a bigger surface of those rough surfaces into the fermenter which should actively degass the mead all the time it is inside. I thought about, maybe those pieces of glass that you can find on the beach, being sanded by the ocean, being really rough on the surface, it could work. Obviously they need to be washed, boiled and sanitised, but afterwards those things should work!

Any other ideas of objects that could work for this purpose or general ideas?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Bentonite already serves this purpose?

 

[NeverDie]

Hi!

As we all know, CO2 is not the yeasts best friend and during the process of making mead we are degassing the soon to be mead as often as possible via stirring and shaking. I thought about how unconvenient this is and thought about other possibilities.

Have you guys ever had those etched/scratched/carved san miguel glasses which have a logo at the bottom at the inside of the glass? This logo is really really rough, like glas which has been scratched with sandpaper.

This rough spot permanently provides places where CO2 can build nucleotides and bubble out of the beer. The result is a nice foam and a beer going flat relatively quickly. The etched spot is forcing the CO2 out of solution.

My idea is now introducing a bigger surface of those rough surfaces into the fermenter which should actively degass the mead all the time it is inside. I thought about, maybe those pieces of glass that you can find on the beach, being sanded by the ocean, being really rough on the surface, it could work. Obviously they need to be washed, boiled and sanitised, but afterwards those things should work!

Any other ideas of objects that could work for this purpose or general ideas?

Makes sense. The question is: how big a difference would it make?

FWIW, I have observed that my TILT also serves as a nucleation point in containers that otherwise have smooth surfaces.

 

[NeverDie]

Hi!

As we all know, CO2 is not the yeasts best friend and during the process of making mead we are degassing the soon to be mead as often as possible via stirring and shaking. I thought about how unconvenient this is and thought about other possibilities.

Have you guys ever had those etched/scratched/carved san miguel glasses which have a logo at the bottom at the inside of the glass? This logo is really really rough, like glas which has been scratched with sandpaper.

This rough spot permanently provides places where CO2 can build nucleotides and bubble out of the beer. The result is a nice foam and a beer going flat relatively quickly. The etched spot is forcing the CO2 out of solution.

My idea is now introducing a bigger surface of those rough surfaces into the fermenter which should actively degass the mead all the time it is inside. I thought about, maybe those pieces of glass that you can find on the beach, being sanded by the ocean, being really rough on the surface, it could work. Obviously they need to be washed, boiled and sanitised, but afterwards those things should work!

Any other ideas of objects that could work for this purpose or general ideas?

How about adding boiling chips? It would seem they're designed to provide lots of nucleation points.

 

[SoulToast]

If the batch is small enough, what about a stir plate?

 

[NeverDie]

If the batch is small enough, what about a stir plate?

Agreed, but that may not scale well. By that I mean, what if you have, say, 10 batches in parallel. Do you then need 10 stir plates?

 

[SKBugs]

What about roughing the inside of a bucket with sandpaper?

 

[NeverDie]

What about roughing the inside of a bucket with sandpaper?

Mostly what I've read is that you don't want scratches on your fermentation vessel, because itty bitty micro-organisms can get into them and evade cleaning. For instance, the people with plastic fermenters try to avoid scratching them for this reason.

It stands to reason that a smooth surface would be easier to clean. Whether it's an absolute requirement or not, I couldn't say. It may be something worth considering though.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I know once you scratch a horses water bucket it becomes impossible to keep algae out of it. So it stands to reason it holds true for other critters in your brew bucket.

 

[SKBugs]

Yep, smooth it is then.

 

[Maylar]

Just stir the damm thing daily. Geez.

 

[CKuhns]

I agree with Maylar to a point. (And your post made me laugh out loud)

However I think that stirring daily or in my case 2Xs daily really doesn't do much as it relates to CO2. Due to the fact that CO2 builds back up to equilibrium in just a very short time after stirring. I think that stirring brings with it some additional oxygen and suspends your yeast cake and that in and of itself helps the yeast more than actually the limited release of CO2 does.

http://towercooler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=97
https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/maelstrom-stir-plate

I made my yeast Starter stir plate from a plastic kitchen container and a PC fan that does a really good job with up to 4 litres for $12. Stir bar, Magnets, rheostat and AC to DC converter was all i had to purchase. I bet you could scale it up for a lot less than what the links above provided costs.

There are some examples of 5 Gallon carboy sir plates here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/forums/chillers-stir-plates.255/

 

[Maylar]

Tell ya what - do a before and after pH test with whatever method of "degassing" you like. That is the point of it, right, to keep carbonic acid from lowering the pH? Lets see if it's even close to significant (my sources say it's not).

Much ado about nothing, IMO. Gentle stirring, however, keeps the yeast in suspension which is a good thing. And if it happens to help degas too, all the better. But I don't think it's anything that needs constant attention.

I haven't used enough liquid yeasts to warrant a stir plate for starters yet, but this is what I'd get: http://www.stirstarters.com/

You don't wanna run one continuously in your mead however, that's way too much oxygen. After a point (just a few days) oxygen is a bad thing.