Crazy Question: Marbles

[clayroc]

Marbles have been used for filtering alcohol in the history of fermentation, but in a different way. Cleaned marbles were used to filter out air so to speak in a container containing wine, preventing oxidation by just displacing the liquid bringing the level into the neck of the bottle and close to the top. Sort of like an ancient version of the vacuvin pumps. Useless info, but oddly pertinent to the discussion.

You know, that's some good info. I don't have a vacuum pump, now I just need to find some lead free marbles

 

[jjones17]

Wow. Okay, Jesus. It's a wonder anybody ever talks about trying new things in this forum. "Without deviation, progress is not possible," Frank Zappa

It's not a game changing technique that everyone is going to be racing to copy, but if the man wants to use marbles I say go for it.

The rest of you would do well to remember that not everyone is terrified of small failures.

I agree with Yuri - all in good fun my man.

A good quote for you which you would 'do well to remember', that I believe applies well to you and your particular type of reasoning:

"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life." - Frank Zappa

I agree - let the man 'go for it'. But if the man asks for an opinion I shall give it. And that opinion of mine says "why bother?" If he did not want to hear it, he would not have asked!

 

[MyNameIsPaul]

Maybe using a mix of different sized marbles would help close the gaps between the bigger marbles. Go nuts man, let us know how it works. But please, no horse pubes.

 

[Dinklefwat]

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest...

What about using marbles as a way to reduce headspace in my mash tun?

Does anyone see any problems with doing this?

(I have a 2 gallon cooler that I want to use for 5G PM recipes and small AG recipes. In theory, for the PM recipes I could just mash more grain and use less DME, but I'm thinking of PM kits that come with a fixed amount of grain, DME, etc., so that adjusting the amount of grain to be mashed wouldn't be easy to do.)

 

[Jadub]

I have a problem where about 1L of wort gets left behind because i can't get it to flow into the drain on my cooler MLT. it sits just beneath the drain - so i need something to fill the space
think a few dozen marbles arranged beneath the cooler drain would raise the level of the wort and allow me to raise my efficiency by getting more wort out?
I can't seem to get above 68% efficiency (perfect temps, double fly sparging..)

 

[kanzimonson]

Just sparge with 1L extra water and don't worry about it - most of us deal with a little extra water here and there. In fact, I always prep about 1gal of extra sparge water over what my software tells me. I just don't want to run out, and if I have any extra that has a reasonable amount of sugar in it, then I just save it in mason jars and pressure cook for starter wort.