Ken,

"Ken Pinard" wrote in message
...
Hi nice explanation, I do have a couple of questions. Mostly for my own
curious mind.

Since Baking Soda is Basic will it not raise the pH? I know we used it in
chemistry to neutralize the acids (even the stuff I dropped all of the
floor, what a mess ;o)

But since Baking Soda raises the kH, the amount of CO2 that is held in the
water solution will be higher. Thus creating carbonic acid. Which will
lower
the pH.


You are off course right, Baking Soda is a base and will raise the pH in the
solution which is why it's taking part of the buffer with the carbonic acid
that's gets created when the CO2 gets into solution.

What I was trying to say was that if the pH gets to high the yeast will die
so be carefull if you have very soft water when adding Baking Soda to the
water / sugar / yeast mixture if you insist on using it.


As I ponder the effect of alcohol on yeast, while I drink a little wine, I
am wondering what additive can combine with alcohol that will not kill the
yeast or react with CO2? I imagine that the idea has been explored
before.
I just was curious.

Hmmm, you could properly remove some of the alcohol using activated charcoal
to absorb it, but I'm not sure how the yeast will react to that!


I would think that if you were trying to prolong the proceess you could
lover the temperature a little because the enzymes that the yeast are using
to break down the sugar to alcohol + CO2 are temperature dependent ie,
higher temperature = faster reaction, but keep in mind that the rest of the
yeast cell still has to be kept alive so there would be some limitations as
to low you could go before the yeast dies / hybernates.

Anyone up for some experimentation, something like a controlled temperature
of the reactor and a measurement of the speed of the process. Speed could be
determined by weighing the bottle at start and then daily on a precise scale
because the CO2 will leave the system (reactor) and decrease the weight of
the reactor.


Any takers?




I've weighed the last bottle I set up when it was started last weekend but I
havent done anything to control the temperature, but because I know that the
final alcohol content shouldn't kill the yeast I can assume that all the
sugar will be converted to alcohol and CO2 by weighing the bottle from time
to time I can find when the reaction is finished.



It has been a very long day and I should properly have waited til I was a
little bit more clear headed than now :-)


Regards

Morten






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