Sediment Collector/trap

[Mitcho89]

Hi guys,

This is my first post so I'd just like to Introduce myself. My name is Mitch and I'm 21 and live in Brisbane. I've been brewing since Christmas with a kit my Mother got me. Now I've got 4 kegs, about 100 tallies and about 300 stubbies... Not all full unfortunately..

Lately I've been using 1.5L due to their capacity and convenience but I've been working on a way to collect the sediment. 4 carbonating drops make a lot mess in the bottom of these bottles.

I managed to come up with using 3/4 clear tube with was a nice snug fit with the bottle neck so it wouldn't fall though and was easy enough to pull out and insert. I capped the bottom and stuck the drops inside there. I put a bunch of decent sized holes above where the carbon drops sat to allow the beer to circulate and allow the yeast to break down the sugar. Because it's capped at the bottom, the sediment just sits there until removal. In combination with this I've been using a carbonation preserver pump I bought from Kmart for 8 bucks. I pumps in air so no carbon is lost in the spare space.

I'll make up a diagram soon after a beer with some tea. I just thought this was a good idea because it was dirt cheap to make and you just don't have to make that many of them especially with the use of 1.5L or bigger bottles.

Thanks very much,

Mitch.

 

[BjornJ]

Hi,
would love to see some more details and possibly some pictures on how you did this?

I have read about a guy who made champagne and used dialysis tubing to put the yeast in.
The yeast could not get out but the sugars would get in to get eaten, leaving a swollen plastic dialysis tube in each champagne bottle. Sounds like you are doing something similar?


thanks

Bjorn

 

[BjornJ]

Here is the article I mentioned: http://www.oakstone-winery.com/pto/pto18.pdf

 

[Mitcho89]

Hi mate,

I've just done a quick drawing how the tubing fits into the bottle. I'll go more into detail more tomorrow morning but this will give a better idea.

I just read the article in the link you provided... That's unreal.. I did a fair bit of reading about anything similar to what I had planned but I didn't come up with much at all so thanks for bringing this to my attention. More or less, it's the same setup but I just wonder which setup is cheaper. I'll have to look around for this type of tubing mentioned. It sounds great! I wonder where in Brisbane I can get some of this tubing... My girlfriend works as a Vet assistant so I wonder if she may be able to help me get something close.

Thanks very much,

Mitch.

 

[shonks69]

Very Clever Mitcho

Good work mate :icon_cheers:

 

[Nick JD]

I'm still confused! What's to stop the sugar dissolving and migrating out into the rest of the bottle?

 

[BjornJ]

I'm still confused! What's to stop the sugar dissolving and migrating out into the rest of the bottle?

Great idea, but does it work?
I would have thought the same, that the yeast needs to be inside the tube, not the sugar?

That in the dialysis tube link, he puts yeast in the tube and the sugar dissolved in the champagne. The sugar gets into the tube, but the yeast cells are too big to get out through the walls of the tube. This restricts the yeast to staying inside the tube and any sediment is inside the tube.

If using a plastic tube with holes drilled in it I would have thought that the sugar would dissolve into the entire bottle, and the yeast (which is floating around in the entire bottle, not in the tube) would grow, eat and fall to the bottom creating sediment?

(So you couldn't put sugar in the dialysis tube either, as the sugar is small enough to dissolve and get out into the beer where the yeast is. you would have to kill all yeast in the beer and put carbonation drops in the bottle, then put new yeast in the dialysis tube)


Very happy to be proven wrong, please show us more.
This could be a clever way to get away from sediment if it works

thanks
Bjorn

 

[Nick JD]

How much are dialysis tubes? I suppose any material with holes smaller than 1 micron and bigger than 0.1 micron would work.

 

[Bribie G]

One trick would be to get the beer crystal clear using finings and cold crash, before bottling and 'seed' the tube with a couple of grains of a suitable dry yeast.

One inch tubing, well it's a start. They supply to school labs.

 

[Nick JD]

One trick would be to get the beer crystal clear using finings and cold crash, before bottling and 'seed' the tube with a couple of grains of a suitable dry yeast.

One inch tubing, well it's a start. They supply to school labs.

Probably reusable too ... just remove the "carbonator tubes" and put them in a sterile solution in a container. For your next brew you just drop one in each beer.

In trying to find out what the pore size is in dialysis tubing I found this:

Dialysis tubing is not permeable to glucose, any starches or proteins. This is because the polymeric protein and starch molecules are too large to pass through the semi-permeable dialysis tubing.

Oh.

 

[MHB]

What the OP proposed simply can't work.

The idea with the dialysis tube would be to have the Yeast and the Sugar in the tube (either added with the yeast or coming in by diffusion (very slow)) and to let the CO₂ diffuse out. Wouldn't have to be dialysis tube any semipermeable membrane would work.

Naturally you're going to have to have yeast free beer in the bottle (i.e. filtered sterile) for it to be worth mucking around with. Even if it works perfectly, now you have a great big sausage in the bottle instead of yeast. Interesting enough but it hardly seems worth the effort.

MHB

 

[MarkBastard]

how good is kegging. bloody awesome

 

[Nick JD]

... it hardly seems worth the effort.

MHB

Sorry for taking up some of your time then. You wouldn't sell kegs, would you?

 

[Mitcho89]

One trick would be to get the beer crystal clear using finings and cold crash, before bottling and 'seed' the tube with a couple of grains of a suitable dry yeast.

One inch tubing, well it's a start. They supply to school labs.

Thanks for the replies. Well I have no real in depth idea of how the yeast breaks down the sugars but I noticed that when the sugar dissolves, it's heavier then the water so it more or less sinks to the bottom. I just thought that if your able to contain that and not disturb it, you may be able to trap some of the sediment.

If it is the case of trapping in the yeast but allow the rest to get through and out, why not maybe wrap some thin mattress foam like sheeting over the holes in the tube idea and place the yeast inside that? that holes and pores of the foam should be fine enough to hold larger particles back.

Thanks and kind regards,

Mitch.

 

[MarkBastard]

Mitch, I for one would just like to see how it pans out for you.

Is the bottle clear? If so any chance you could take progress photos every week or so?

Because they're carb drops you may get lucky? If the yeast can eat at the same rate the carb drops dissolve, then maybe the yeast will hang around where the carb drops are dissolving.

 

[Mitcho89]

I use the Safale s-04 Ale Yeast which has a very high level of sediment so I'm assuming (please correct me if I'm wrong) that this strain of yeast breaks down sugars a lot more thoroughly and quickly so as you said, I may be able to get away with it. I'll get a few more 1.5L clear soft drink bottles and take a photo every day if I can. I don't hold high hopes at all but I'd love for this to work.

Thanks fella's.

 

[fraser_john]

how good is kegging. bloody awesome

:icon_offtopic:

+1

 

[Screwtop]

In combination with this I've been using a carbonation preserver pump I bought from Kmart for 8 bucks. I pumps in air so no carbon is lost in the spare space.

This is what concerns me !

Screwy

 

[MHB]

Sorry for taking up some of your time then. You wouldn't sell kegs, would you?

It's funny but up until here I was actually agreed with your comments in this thread, and thanks for the information on the Dialysis Tubing, I have worked with various semipermeable membranes but not this particular type I'm a bit surprised that glucose won't go through it

Of course I sell kegs, but was I trying to? Or have you ever seen a post of mine outside a retail thread where I am trying to sell anything, if you have please either show it to me or quit taking cheap shots at me just because I am a retailer. In exchange if you don't post rubish I won't give you a hard time.
I am a Brewer, I get to spend every day helping people make better beer, I study brewing, have even passed exams in brewing, running a home brew shop for the last 10 years I might even have learned a little bit about brewing, but first I'm a brewer because I love brewing. The fact that I have convinced the ATO that beer is a tax deductable expense is just a bonus.

MHB

 

[Swinging Beef]

The fact that I have convinced the ATO that beer is a tax deductable expense is just a bonus.

I'm still working on this.