Degassing beads

[IanG]

So I made a tongue in cheek snarky comment in another thread about mentos bombing as a degasser. For those not in the know mentos have a peculiar shape that if you drop them into a soda bottle the co2 releases immediately like 20 feet in the air. google mentos and coke on youtube for a multitude of fun stuff. Anyway the physics are that the surface area is particularly suitable to gas bubbles forming.

I am looking for a degasser and will probably do the plastic coat hanger and drill.

However has anyone considered the mentos approach maybe a 3D printed beads using food grade plastic?

You would want them to be put in at start of fermentation noone wants a mentos bomb, probably one type with a ball bearing inside to sink, one floater and one in the middle.

 

[Cwrw666]

Been making country wines for something like 40 years and never degassed a single one of them. Started making kit wines, Beverdale and Cali Conoiseur for the last year. The instructions all say degass, but I never bothered and they're all fine to drink from bottling time.

So why bother. Just another opportunity to whip some oxygen into your brew.

 

[IanG]

I agree. Laziness is my default as well... but curiosity kills me as well

 

[Berserker Brewery]

i dont degas wines, but i do a mead or cyser, etc. i use a brake vacuum bleeder kit...lol it works. 24 hrs later, its suprising what drops out.

 

[AdeDunn]

I've only degassed mead, and a wine kit one time. Used a commercial wand to do the job, steel with 2 plastic arms that flip out at the sides, worked a treat. I've had mead in the past that hadn't been degassed, to call it a bit harsh would be an understatement. I rarely brew mead these days though, as I brew beer, and we can only drink so much... lol

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I degas as i haven't time to let it clear naturally and as we all know non degassed wine can take ages to clear rather than 48 hours with a decent finning.

 

[DocAnna]

Oh so much on your wavelength with this! I was thinking exactly the same about your comment with the mentos and went off and did some reading on this. Apparently a lot of it is to do with the microscopic surface texture of the mentos and because they sink in the fluid they are being continually exposed to new parts of the fluid as they try to sink and are buoyed up by the released CO2. The turbulence created by the reaction in turn agitates the liquid to release more CO2. Ie it’s a chain reaction that is in part dependent on the volatility of the reaction.
So a gentle equivalent wouldn’t achieve the same effect, nor would similarly textured objects at rest in the fermentation. The reaction is interestingly more pronounced in the presence if artificial sweetener but I could t find anything on how alcohol would affect the it.
That’s a really long way of saying that I don’t think it would work. I might try some ground glass beads sometime as a completely uncontrolled experiment though out of interest.

Anna

 

[Clint]

Degassing beads...sounds like something dreadful to be used after a ferocious curry...

 

[Pappa skelitor]

I make 30 bottles at a time and use a paint paddle to degas.

 

[Berserker Brewery]

doesn't that risk oxidization of the wine? thats why i use a brake bkeeder on meads, as they are hyper sensitive to it.

 

[Pappa skelitor]

As I am racking it into another bucket, I have a fermentation barrel from wilko's that has a hole in the lid for a bung. I give it a good 15 minutes blast them remove the paddle and reattach the lid and add a bung. Hasn't effected it yet

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have moved this thread to the wine forums from the beer forum it was ported in.

doesn't that risk oxidization of the wine? thats why i use a brake bkeeder on meads, as they are hyper sensitive to it.

I have been degassing wine for several years with a degassing wand and drill and have never had one go bad.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-to-degas-wine-with-a-home-made-degassing-wand.48971/

 

[IanG]

Thanks for the comments. It was a stupid thought but stupid is my middle name

DocAnna you are probably right and this would not work as a slow reaction. It would also probably be problematic if the reaction relied on the presense of artificial sweetener and not just the shape of the mentos.

However if anyone is in derbyshire and has a 3D printer I'll risk a couple of demi johns (wilkos) anyway. What is the worst that could happen! face full of wine

 

[kelper]

Is there any proof that the holes in the surface cause the eruption in coke? You get the same reaction if you pour sugar into a fizzy drink. It might be worth experimenting with any inert powder that is non-clumping........

Sand will do it, though not as spectacularly Science of Mentos-Diet Coke explosions explained

 

[The Baron]

On a similar subject a Rookie mistake I made was putting lactose (mixed in boiling water) into a corny keg with carbed beer to sweeten it. Never again a serpent fountain

 

[jof]

See DocAnna's reply.
Its all about having nucleation sites for bubble formation.
So powdered sugar or even porous sugar cubes will also have the same effect.
I guess sugar is normally used because whatever left will still be drinkable, but you should be able to get the same effect if you added salt too.

Its also why some champagne glasses have more visible bubbles rising than others - clean smooth glass = less bubbles. Rough or dirty/dusty glass = more bubbles

 

[kelper]

See DocAnna's reply.

That was just an assertion, not proof!

 

[DocAnna]

That was just an assertion, not proof!

You are quite right. I should have given the references to my reading, I can’t take credit since this has been fairly extensively studied. This is a summary paper that brings together the evidence on surfaces, density, nucleation sites, and how the agitation of fluid in the reaction leads to greater CO2 release.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14114-science-of-mentos-diet-coke-explosions-explained/https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.2888546
Anna

 

[kelper]

The first one, I had already quoted. The second link is pay-walled! I wonder if you could use washed sand without tainting your wine. I like the concept of instant degassing.nes?

 

[DocAnna]

The first one, I had already quoted. The second link is pay-walled! I wonder if you could use washed sand without tainting your wi I like the concept of instant degassing.nes?

Ok My bad- sorry about that, I don't see the paywall as it logs me in through my university library id. It would be a bit off to put the whole article up but I think it's ok to quote the conclusion from the paper:

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Due to the popularity of the Diet Coke–Mentos reaction as a demonstration of key principles in physics and chemistry, we have investigated the causes of the reaction. This demonstration illustrates many important ideas in physics, including key principles in thermodynamics, surface science, and the physics of eruptions. The Mythbusters correctly identified potassium benzoate and aspartame as key ingredients in the Diet Coke–Mentos reaction. We have shown here via contact angle measurements that these ingredients reduce the work required for bubble formation, allowing carbon dioxide to rapidly escape from the soda. Due to the small amount of caffeine in a 2l2l bottle of Diet Coke, we do not agree that the caffeine in Diet Coke contributes significantly to the reaction. The Mythbusters also correctly identified the roughness of the samples as one of the main causes of the reaction. We showed the importance of sample roughness by comparing SEM and AFM images of the samples to the explosive power of the reaction. We also showed that samples which encounter less viscous drag and hence fall more quickly through the soda will cause a more explosive reaction. Also, for the same amount of mass lost, the eruption will be more dramatic when the reaction takes place over a shorter time. Finally, we have shown that hotter beverages result in a more explosive reaction.