Helium In Place Of Co2

[Housecat]

read this in a squeaky voice;


I have come into supply of some helium.


Other than balloons and chipmunk impersonations, could I use it instead of CO2 to carb up my beer?
And if not why?

Cheers,

HC

Edit: had an extra question!

 

[sean_0]

In a word, no.

Helium is not (or more or less not) soluble in water. Also you wouldn't be carbing would you?

 

[NickB]

WTF. Seriously.

 

[pk.sax]

I suppose you could use it to push the beer out.... After carbing it normally first... Heh, might be a funny one to try!

 

[DUANNE]

In a word, no.

Helium is not (or more or less not) soluble in water. Also you wouldn't be carbing would you?

as i understand nitrogen is also more or less insoluble in beer as well but is still used in a co2 mix . helium is an inert gas so should be okay in theory to push the beer. the only question is why would you want to. co2 cost bugger all any way. could be fun for about five minutes though serving it up at a party and possibly having a room full of chipmunks.

 

[Effect]

Of course it would be impractical. So is making beer from beer. Give it a go mate and let us know how it goes. We need to know what our limits are.

Cheers

 

[Housecat]

thanks for the constructive replies guys.

to clarify, i have been given a full helium bottle so cost is not a factor.
as phillip said, I'll give it a go. The worst that will happen is it won't have any bubbles or everyone speaks with falsetto voices.
I'll report back my findings oncd i have tried it out.

HC

 

[bconnery]

everyone speaks with falsetto voices.


HC

If you pour a beer that makes people speak with a helium voice then I for one expect video!

 

[dougsbrew]

cool experiment housecat, i take it youll only be charging a small
amount of beer for experiment, look forward to your results.

 

[glassgrenade]

Helium is the least soluble gas, so I doubt it would "carb" your beer at all, would be fine for pushing out beer I imagine. I wouldn't do it, the gas probably isn't 100% helium

 

[krusty_oz]

Keep it for balloons or some exotic TIG welding. For info a D size cylinder of balloon gas is $100/fill and G is $370. If its high purity then a G size is $1000.

 

[Feldon]

Sorry to be a party poopper but inhaling helium, particularly while consuming alcohol, can cause asphyxia and death. If that should occur there would probably be a manslaughter charge laid against the person who made/supplied the beer.

 

[chefeffect]

Sorry to be a party poopper but inhaling helium, particularly while consuming alcohol, can cause asphyxia and death. If that should occur there would probably be a manslaughter charge laid against the person who made/supplied the beer.

I can imagine a high pitched voice person pointing at someone else saying "it was him officer" ha ha!

 

[hsb]

Maybe time to have a rethink and get working on the world's first floating bar, or an all new way of dealing with problems getting the bag out with BIAB. Or how about sending your full fermenter up to a requisite height to manage temperature?

 

[pk.sax]

Sorry to be a party poopper but inhaling helium, particularly while consuming alcohol, can cause asphyxia and death. If that should occur there would probably be a manslaughter charge laid against the person who made/supplied the beer.

lol

Care to quote a source?

PS: Not making fun, I can see the science behind it.. just having trouble qualifying what you said against, say.. inhaling too much CO2 or something... Thought maybe you knew a definitive source of info?

 

[DU99]

put's a new spin on Light Beer

 

[roo_dr]

How would drinking helium "carbed" beer lead to one having a squeaky voice?

 

[Feldon]

Care to quote a source?

 

[Housecat]

Thanks for the reminder Feldon, alcohol fueled fun can be dangerous.

So, inhalation will be off the list. However, ingesting the gas should have no adverse effects. This is according to the MSDS data sheet here

Will think it through a bit more and see what I will do.

Oh and don't worry too much, if I do, it will only be a 2L PET bottle to test it out.


HC

 

[pk.sax]

Ah.. thanks Feldon.

Yes, ingesting any gas molecules smaller than O2 is theoretically dangerous.. depends on how much you ingest though. Divers have to watch their Nitrogen retention for the same reason. Helium acts faster though - smaller molecules. In any case, as long as its done within limits, the body gets rid of it over a period of time.

In small quantities though, it shouldn't have an effect. Thing to test would be, if you use helium to push out the beer, how much of it ends up dissolving?

You see, CO2 remains in the beer/soft drinks because it is actually heavier than both O2 & N2. Helium on the other hand, is extremely light. 'IF' it did dissolve, I'd expect it to escape out super quick. But I'm not expecting it to dissolve (much at all) if the beer was pre-carbonated. This is something that can be safely verified by experiment. Imagine mixing oil and water in a bottle and then lid it and leave it alone for a while, the lighter oil would form a layer on top of the water.... Similar concept.

My real concern was what you pointed out about ingesting Helium along with alcohol. I couldn't find anything on that and am actually concerned about that.