Sugar Cubes

[vcorey04]

does yeast go bad?

two days ago i cleaned out my fermentation container, and put in sugar cubes instead of loose sugar. added the champagne yeast, and the other thing that stabilizes the reaction....filled it with luke warm water...


and i got NO bubbles???

was it the sugar cubes?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Your suppose to shake up the container and let the sugar dissolve in the water. Just adding them in there like cubes will prob. not let it work right.

 

[vcorey04]

yea, when i suspected the problem being that they were in cube form, i did that yesterday. still no bubbles

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

If I were you, I would just start the whole mixture over, and do it like normal

 

[vcorey04]

right. i was hoping it would work out.. i'll do that now. but i will get some loose sugar..

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hey it never hurts to experiment. Just imagine if it did work out and you found out some new way to make the co2 last longer, it would of been great. It's just a chance you take.

Well good luck with the normal way and your tanks

 

[czcz]

Yeast does go bad if its not kept airtight and in a dark cool place. I don't think you can reactivate it or anything. If possible, easiest test would be new yeast.

But I asked the google and it said sugar cubes are held together by what sounds like molds but some are held by molasses (neat!) -- it seems like it would be fine and the yeast will break it down as it floats around. I believe folks who used (much more) molasses in their mixes reported it takes longer to get going? I have no experience with such mixes, but even regular sugar takes forever to dissolve and you'll always have that settled mass in the bottom of the 2L, but it still works.

 

[buddha_red]

hehe starting to sound like my other hobby.. winemaking..


If you want to make some gas, make a wort. take some water, heat it in a pot on the stove. slowly add your sugar and stir till clear. Once its clear and all sugar has been incorporated put the water to the side and let it cool. Once the water is warm but not hot, you can add the yeast. do not stir it up. pour the yeast on top of the water. cap the bottle and let it rest in place. congrats, you have made a flavorless wort used in making wine.

By doing this, the sugar will stay in the solution and the yeast can eat up all that sugar and produce gas and a flavorless alcohol. an SG of 1.105 was best when making home wines so anywhere in that range is plenty.

 

[vcorey04]

sooo, the sugar cubes take longer to react? when i use loose sugar, i have lots of bubbles within 15 hours.. about...

with this wine making thing, can i use this in the same way?

what about a "stabilizer"..

c, i bought a pretty do it yourself co2 generator from LFS a while ago. now i realize, i was buying into something i could recreate easily...

anyway, it comes with two packages, sealed like sample shampoo..

one is called the "activator", and the other is the "stabilizer".

ooooOOOOOoooo

lol

 

[buddha_red]

i use yeast, sugar and water and fruit to make wine. I gave you the super easy version of how to make the base solution which produces the c02 your looking for.

to continue and make wine you have to follow some steps, track the SG of the solution and wait for the yeast to eat all the sugar, filter out the yeast or "lees",then you add flavorings and sugar to back sweeten to a certain SG and you have "raw wine" or un-aged wine.


I make a homemade grape wine using welches concentrate. Its quick and easy. It becomes quite addictive once you figure out you can make wine from almost anything. I really can turn water into wine!

 

[fort384]

The stabilizer is just baking soda.

FYI, I have used both regular baking yeast and champagne yeast, with no discernible difference in the amount of time each solution lasted. The best setup for my 29G tank has been 2 roughly 1 liter bottles hooked to a gas separator bottle. I only run each bottle 4 days, so I change opposite bottles every 2 days. It is a lot of work, but it has allowed me to produce and maintain consistent CO2 levels between 30-50 ppm. I get about 1-2 bps with this setup.

It is a lot of work though... so I just recently ordered a pressurized system. I have the tank full of CO2 standing by, just waiting on my regulator/needle valve, which I hope will be here tomorrow.