Fermentation with silicone tubing?

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PeeBee
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Re: Fermentation with silicone tubing?

Post by PeeBee » Fri Nov 03, 2017 6:38 pm

f00b4r wrote:
Fri Nov 03, 2017 6:22 pm
Also bear in mind that silicone tubing is soft so you might actually be letting oxygen in at the end of the tubing where it is connected, ie it is slightly deformed, rather than through the walls itself.
Thanks. Got that covered. The tubing is fixed with crimps - no screw hose-clips in sight - and all the tube is terminated with new (undistorted) JG fittings (stems and barbs, not push-fits for sloppy silicone hose, I'm not that daft - or I probably am that daft but the daftness is focussed elsewhere).
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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PeeBee
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Posts: 1575
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:50 pm
Location: North Wales

Re: Fermentation with silicone tubing?

Post by PeeBee » Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:24 pm

I've stumbled across another reason for that acetic acid that doesn't involve infection, just the supply of oxygen from the silicone hoses:
The hazards of respiration: As a further testament to its flexibility, yeast is also diauxic, meaning the cells can use more than one carbon source for their energy needs. Under certain circumstances, yeast can respire ethanol as well as glucose, producing acetic acid (vinegar) as a by-product. This process can occur only in the presence of oxygen when no alternative energy source (that is, no fermentable sugar) is available. Fortunately, our yeast does not normally get the chance to oxidize ethanol to acetic acid because by the time all the sugar is gone and ethanol is available for respiration, no dissolved oxygen is left in solution.
Thank you Tracy Aquilla (author). This comes from an interesting (if a bit geeky) piece here:
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/how_yeast_use_oxygen

Both beers might have been damaged by the experience but have been quite drinkable. To put that in context; one was an 1845 clone which I made a far more significant error with last year: I used another maltster's Amber Malt, not Simpson's. Nothing wrong with the other maltster's malt, but when trying to clone 1845 only Simpson's will do.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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