Vibrating Ferment table

[Jon Goswick]

Title explains it. Anyone do it? Pros vs. cons.

 

[day_trippr]

Fermenting wort looks like a washing machine at work.
What would vibration bring to the equation?

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

Can't imagine a reason for that. And a table? How would you control the fermentation temperature on a table?

 

[schmurf]

Are you thinking it would work like a gigantic starter?

 

[SanPancho]

If your vibrations are strong enough to suspend the yeast instead of having it drop then you would pxect to see faster ferment and attenuation numbers on the high end. Big brewers use something like a pinwheel in their tanks that recircs the wort. Same principle.

 

[bracconiere]

i think yeast reproduce asexually...but maybe a vibrator would make them happier?

 

[NGD]

It would work better if I could keep the wife and her friends off it

 

[kh54s10]

If your vibrations are strong enough to suspend the yeast instead of having it drop then you would pxect to see faster ferment and attenuation numbers on the high end. Big brewers use something like a pinwheel in their tanks that recircs the wort. Same principle.

Doubtful. Equating a large brewery to a homebrew environment is comparing apples and oranges. In the commercial brewery the yeast that fall to the bottom are under hydro pressure of thousands of gallons of beer, not 5 or 10 gallons. That pressure is why commercial breweries stir the wort.

If there were a faster ferment and more attenuation it would be minimal at best.

 

[SanPancho]

Pressure isnt the issue. Yeast do fine under pressure. The issue is keeping the yeast in solution so they have total and complete access to nutrients and fermentables throught the process.

Same principle as putting starters on stirplates.

Because biology.

 

[kh54s10]

Pressure isnt the issue. Yeast do fine under pressure. The issue is keeping the yeast in solution so they have total and complete access to nutrients and fermentables throught the process.

Same principle as putting starters on stirplates.
Because biology.

Stirplates are to get more oxygen to the reproducing yeast. Something not desired in a fermenting wort.
Yeast usually stay in solution just fine in a homebrew setting without any outside assistance. A vibrating table is just something that has little if any value in a homebrew setting.

 

[jack13]

Stirplates are to get more oxygen to the reproducing yeast. Something not desired in a fermenting wort.
Yeast usually stay in solution just fine in a homebrew setting without any outside assistance. A vibrating table is just something that has little if any value in a homebrew setting.

Related to what you just said, I was thinking the vibrating table would encourage gas exchange (as with a starter on a stir plate), which would include some oxygen. Fine at the beginning of fermentation, but not toward end, which is actually when the vibration may speed things up a bit (kind of like increasing the temp at the end speeds things up).

The vibrating table is a very interesting idea, but I agree with others that ultimately it probably wouldn't be beneficial.