Another CO2 mix post

[JRagg]

Ok, so I've tried a few differnt things and so far my best results have been with lots of water, 2C sugar, and champagne yeast. It kept going long afer the other mixes were done for.

I stumbled across this the other day.
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/articles.html
The first article is a powerpoint presentation about DIY CO2 mixes.

I decided to try what is written there. Basically the only visible differnce is that they say use 1C of sugar to every 2L of water. They also add protein drink mix and molasses. Aparently you can substitute nonfat dehydrated milk for the protein drink mix. I know I've seen people here recommend the molasses before, but I hadn't tried it yet.

Anyways, I've just started a mix based on this stuff (minus the baking soda). I'm curious as to how well it will work. The only real neat thing that I see is that they don't ever replace the yeast. Since pasteur champagne yeast sinks, that would be very easy to pull off. I'll let you guys know the results in a few weeks.

 

[Guest]

what do you mean when you say 'lots of water'? my mixtures according to the sticky dont work very well.

edit:
not sticky, i meant the diy article.

 

[JRagg]

I've seen some mixes that say 2C water and 2C sugar. At those levels the yeast are killed from ethanol long before they use all of the sugar. By adding more water it takes longer to reach deadly levels of ethanol for the yeast, so you get more CO2 out of the mix. This is also the reason I use champagne yeast. It can handle about 12% ethanol, whereas bread yeast dies at around 5 or 6%

I fill about 4" from the top of the 2L bottle.

 

[Zezmo]

You need to alway get the max amount of water you can in a DIY mix. High sugar concentration is also poisonous to yeast. More water lets you have more sugar, with out making the concentration too strong. This is an important factor in overall DIY CO2 success. The more water the better, always fill your container at least 80-90% full.

When talking "ingredients" each one has a specific purpose. You will be more successful if you understand why each ingredient is added. Randomly trying some things and not others will give you random results.

Yeast: can be fresh or can be whats left in the bottle if you don't rinse the bottle. It only takes one "yeast cell" to get things going. The more animals in your started culture, the faster it will get going. Excess will get it going faster, but will not make it last longer.

Water: keeps "waste" in the form of alcohol from being too concentrated and killing the yeast.

Sugar: is fuel energy for yeast growth, it also provides the carbon for the CO2 that is given off. Here is a six degrees kinda thought.... The sugar is grown in Hawaii, so the carbon and oxygen bound in the sugar molecule are also from Hawaii. The CO2 is created/release by the yeast. The plants in your tank, take the Carbon, and give off the pure oxygen, which bubbles up into your room. Thus, filling your room with pure oxygen from Hawaii

Baking Soda: keeps the mixture from becoming acidic (from all that CO2) so it simply buffers the water the same way and for the same reason as in your fish tank.

Protein Drink, Whey Protein, Dried Milk Powder: Just like for us, they provide amino acids used to build proteins within the yeast cell. Yeast may "live" without protein, but they will not grow and thrive without it. In a non-protein enhanced mixture, I suspect the dead yeast in mixture provides what little protein is available to your yeast. Without it, you literally starve them to death over time.

Molasses: This is in place of Ammonium sulfate. the Molasses, being an natural type sweetener, of course has sugar, and some protein. But it is trace nutrients that the yeast needs out of there to thrive.

Temperature: low temps and the yeast starts slow and does not do much. Too hot of water at the beginning will kill it. Also, hot water on cold yeast will really kill most of it. Let cold yeast come to room temp. and use tepid water to start.

HTH

 

[Guest]

man-o-man, no wonder my stuff wanst working. thanks for the help!

edit:

ps. would coffee creamer work for protein?

 

[JRagg]

Baking Soda: keeps the mixture from becoming acidic (from all that CO2) so it simply buffers the water the same way and for the same reason as in your fish tank.

I've read that in general the reason yeast die is because of ethanol concentration, not so much the pH.

In any case, I may crack the mixture open tonight and put in the 1tsp of baking soda. I guess it's pretty inexpensive and worth not messing up the mix accidentally.

I'm not sure about the creamer, I wouldn't go for it though.
Nonfat powdered milk is really cheap though, you can find it in the baking section of your grocery store. I use it to make bread so I already had some.