Signs of Inflation

[Murphy's Law]

Home brewers make their own CO2 but whether or not they capture it is an entirely different question. Just capture the CO2 coming of a standard fermentation and there ya go! Enough to purge O2 from a keg and to start carb'ing your beer!

 

[RayClem]

Yes, fermentation does produce CO2, but it is not always easy to capture that CO2. In the traditional method champenoise process used to produce champagne and sparkling wines, the wine is carbonated by adding a dosage of sugar and wine to trigger a secondary fermentation that provides the tiny CO2 bubbles for which these wines are famous. In the industrial charmat method used for cheap sparking wines, the still wine is carbonated using bottled CO2. The result is larger bubbles.

I once worked in a paper mill that used purified calcium carbonate as a filler in the paper. There was a plant adjacent to the paper mill that calcined limestone to produce calcium oxide lime that was then mixed into water. We then routed exhaust gases from one of the boilers so it could bubble through the mixture. The CO2 from the exhaust gases reacted with the lime and pure calcium carbonate of precipitated out. Since CO2 was released when the limestone was calcined in a kiln, there was no net reduction in CO2 emissions.

 

[Murphy's Law]

Yes, fermentation does produce CO2, but it is not always easy to capture that CO2. In the traditional method champenoise process used to produce champagne and sparkling wines, the wine is carbonated by adding a dosage of sugar and wine to trigger a secondary fermentation that provides the tiny CO2 bubbles for which these wines are famous. In the industrial charmat method used for cheap sparking wines, the still wine is carbonated using bottled CO2. The result is larger bubbles.

I once worked in a paper mill that used purified calcium carbonate as a filler in the paper. There was a plant adjacent to the paper mill that calcined limestone to produce calcium oxide lime that was then mixed into water. We then routed exhaust gases from one of the boilers so it could bubble through the mixture. The CO2 from the exhaust gases reacted with the lime and pure calcium carbonate of precipitated out. Since CO2 was released when the limestone was calcined in a kiln, there was no net reduction in CO2 emissions.

This is how home brewers carbonate their bottle beers, as well. There are several ways, but I used to add a small sugar cube to each bottle before caping and that would kick off the secondary fermentation, at least enough to carb each bottle. You had to be careful and make sure you didn't add too much sugar, or the bottle would over-carb and it would be a "bottle bomb". I have never had a bottle explode on me, but I've seen pictures and it's not pretty. Shards of glass everywhere!

I know a lot of keggers will hook up a blow off tube off a fermenter, into a keg filled with water, and that keg will have a tube running into a pail of water (or another keg). The blow off will purge the water, leaving you with a keg of CO2 and no O2, which can harm your newly brewed beer.

You should see some homebrew set ups...gadgets, stainless steel and hoses running everywhere! I haven't brewed in awhile but I can safely say I never save any money brewing my own beer!!

Now this is making me thirsty!

 

[RayClem]

Ray, I'm a chemical engineer myself and I agree with you. But I have colleagues who work in the area of membrane separations who get absolutely furious if you tell them it is easier to get CO2 by burning something!

It is always nice to become acquainted with fellow chemical engineers. There are not a lot of us. According to labor statistics, there are only 24,000 in the entire USA. I am retired now, so I might not be counted in those statistics.

You can get CO2 from air by liquification, However, since the concentration is around 412 ppm, the process is not efficient. You have to use use high pressure and refrigeration to separate CO2 from other gasses like nitrogen, oxygen, and argon that are available in higher concentration. While that process is used to produce liquid nitrogen, oxygen and argon, so much CO2 is used for carbonation that the process is not efficient unless the concentration is much higher than 412 ppm; that is where burning natural gas comes in. Burning methane (CH4, aka natural gas) produces 1 part CO2 and 2 parts water vapor (H2O). Thus, the CO2 concentration in the exhaust stream of natural gas boiler is quite high making the separation process efficient. Plus the heat produced by the combustion can be turned into electricity to charge electric vehicles and light homes.

 

[JPSBBQ]

Rabbit Hole entered here.

 

[Murphy's Law]

Rabbit Hole entered here.

It’s called boredom!

 

[MidwestSmoker]

It’s called boredom!

I propose that next time there is a post complaining about Traegers we create a rabbit hole to hijack the thread!

 

[JPSBBQ]

I propose that next time there is a post complaining about Traegers we create a rabbit hole to hijack the thread!

Brilliant idea actually!

 

[Murphy's Law]

There should be a separate “room” for random people to post their one and only post telling us to never buy Traeger, rant a little, and then go away.

And we can avoid that room because they’re not looking for anything but just want to gripe and feel good about it.

 

[JPSBBQ]

There should be a separate “room” for random people to post their one and only post telling us to never buy Traeger, rant a little, and then go away.

And we can avoid that room because they’re not looking for anything but just want to gripe and feel good about it.

I’m convinced that a portion of those people are simply Trolls. Certainly not all of them. Some of them?

 

[RayClem]

There should be a separate “room” for random people to post their one and only post telling us to never buy Traeger, rant a little, and then go away.

And we can avoid that room because they’re not looking for anything but just want to gripe and feel good about it.

There is a feature that will allow you to ignore posts of specific individuals. If you click on their handle for one of their posts, you can click on the Ignore button. Ignoring their posts means their posts no longer show up on the threads you watch.

I hate to do that, but every now and then it seems there are individuals that just want to gripe constantly. On other forums I have occasionally run into folks that are downright hateful and attack other forum members. The only way to control my own emotions is to block them.