I can hardly wait, for you see, Taz was the first blogger to link to 101-365. May your journey take you where you need to go.
(By the way Taz, I've stolen your random picture script for the above display. Your blog ROCKED! Thanks in retrospect!)
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In the mail:
Neopaulsonite wKen is going through all the motions and his platform makes as much sense as anyone else's - he's so gonna win! comments
Technical ferment update:
Several days ago I wrote that the Raisinette II™ was continuing to ferment after the first racking, generating carbon dioxide at a rate of 8 milliliters per minute. The rate slowed to only three mL/min in a couple of days as the ambiant temperature was very cold, 15°C. So a warming jacket was constructed with the heating pad, a garbage bag and some tape. A thermometer was inserted into the jacket to monitor the temperature, because as Eric reminded me, yeast die if the temperature goes too high.
Acording to Margalit's Wine Chemistry fermentation leads to this overall equation:
C6H12O6 --> 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2
The formula weight of ethanol and carbon dioxide are 46 and 44 grams per mole respectivly. The efficiency of carbon dioxide production is close to 100%, but there are several side reactions that lower alcohol production, so nearly equal masses of each product result from normal yeast fermentation.
I used that fact to monitor the alcohol level in the raisinette. The bubbles coming out the bubbler tube indicate the rate of carbon dioxide formation. On another page, you can see an animation of the bubbler at a rate of about 6 mL/min. Here is the graph of CO2vs time:
The large peak at the right of the graph is an estimate of the activity during the main fermentation in the bowl. (You can see an animation of the main fermentation.) The total carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation is given by the area under the rate graph:
total CO2 = vol. CO2/time d(time)
Which was found to be 152 L = 6.8 mol = 300 g CO2
so there are about 300 g of alcohol in the 1.9 L of raisinette.
Raisinette II™ is therefore 15.8% alcohol! I will test this with a hydrometer at the next racking.
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Taz is rhymin' again on his blog. This guy is one of the best - yet completely unsung - poets of the day. His tales of heartbreak tease and remind me of some of the tougher times life has offered up.
vol. CO2/time d(time)