Re: [AGA-Member] GLOB from DIY Co2 using TAG recipe?

[Heather J Gladney <hgladney@comcast.net>]

Not an expert source, but until recently, I had a whole gang of bottles 
eating sugar every week!
I suspect two things:  off-balance proportions or contaminated source 
supplies.  You could have some sort of bacteria going in  there when you 
put the bottles together, in spite of using different bottles.  Perhaps 
something else has crept in on utensils or storage containers that goes 
wild on such a great high-quality culture.  I believe the helpful 
article noted that yeast solutions can be overtaken by other things such 
as molds, and there are bacteria that do make impressive gelatinous masses.

You may want to run your bottle lids (tubing and all) through hot water 
and soap, recheck proportions you're using, use different utensils, 
perhaps try a different recipe without yeast food or molasses, or try 
different supplies of them.

BTW, I started trying protein drink after reading that article.  It did 
seem to extend the life of the solutions a little longer.  But I had 
some odd reactions when I tried adding leftover wine as an experiment to 
see if wine yeast might last longer and be more resistant to acid.  
(Apparently not, and it went bad, moldy & smelly.)  After a year and a 
half, my recipe ended up using soda and white sugar and protein drink.  
I didn't need to use molasses or yeast food to get it to work fine.
On proportions:
for a 2-liter bottle, I added about 1/4 cup protein drink (this happened 
to be ready to drink liquid), 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cornstarch (as a starch & 
site for attaching for better growth), about a tablespoon of baking soda 
to counteract increasing acid of solution, 1/4 tsp yeast, about 1 cup of 
sugar, and warm but not hot untreated tapwater with plenty of headspace 
left for foam.
You may need to adjust soda for your water conditions.  Some people have 
very alkaline tapwater and don't need as much soda, other people have 
nearly distilled stuff coming out of the faucet and really need to add 
*lots* more soda.
I've read panicky posts about using tapwater without removing chlorine, 
and perhaps some systems really overdo the chlorination, but I've never 
had a problem.
I also ran a whole gang of 18 bottles  (it's not a big tank by *this* 
list's standards, but it's pretty big by mine!) through multiple 
airstones, and rotated out a third or a half of them every week so I'd 
get an even gas supply from them.  It looked like a distillery under the 
tank!

Hope this helps!


SunflwrgrlS@aol.com wrote:

> I'm using a DIY recipe provided in a recent (ok, not that recent, about 2 or 
> 3 issues ago)  TAG, and it has in the past worked enormously well for me. The 
> key is protein powder, molasses, and some yeast nutrient. 
>
> Well, about two weeks ago, I made a batch with soy milk because I ran out of 
> protein powder, and I got this jelatin-ous mass that bubbled up and up the 
> tubes..it was totally gross..a GLOB. Well, I threw that batch out, the bottle and 
> everything. I also used old tank water in that one.
>
> The other day, I made a new batch with a new bottle and new protein powder 
> (some Adkins stuff I bought at the grocery store, not the kind I used before), 
> and again I got this jelly-like goop. I do not use gelatin by the way. I don't 
> know what is causing it and because I'm not precise with my measurements (a 
> little of this and a little of that), I'm not sure what the difference is. I'm 
> wondering if it is the baking soda I've added? (I did not use baking soda in 
> the past). Originally I thought it was the soy milk, but this time I didn't add 
> the soy milk. But, I had added soy milk to another container and it did fine.
>
> Any thoughts? I searced the web using "mead and baking soda" (I thought that 
> would bring me more results than using diy co2) and found a case of baking 
> soda causing mulitple bubbling up explosions of the mead (kind of funny actually 
> as his wife was very mad at him and took away his baking soda).  
>
> Any one else use this mix?  Anyone else get the GLOB?  
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>  

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