One good thing about homebrewing: it forces you to mop the floor more often.
Last night I thought it would be a good idea to add the salt to my fermenting gose beer. I got the first few pinches in when the geyser came. Billowing, white, pleasantly-malty-with-a-hint-of-coriander foam got all over the floor, carboy, surrounding objects (aka me), ect. It reminds me all to well of the time I added yeast nutrient to a mead without degassing it first. And also the time I removed a clogged stopper from a batch of foreign extra stout and got blasted with krausen and hops in the face.
What's up with this? Is it just adding a powder to a liquid with a bunch of CO2 in it that makes the carboy volcano?
It is probably a similar reaction to the coke/mentos reaction. The powder creates nucleation sites where the CO2 leaves solution and forms bubbles which quickly rush out.
ReplyDeleteyup-nucleation points on the salt crystals
ReplyDeleteYou are SO right about mopping the floor more often....!
ReplyDeleteThis is why I do my fermenting in the tub. Even in there I still use a blowoff tube.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do when you need to take a bath? Shower with your carboy?
ReplyDeleteYeah, you are right about the nucleation thing, here's some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleation
ReplyDeleteThis stuff is actually really interesting.