Speeding up steeping?

[twoeyedbob]

thanks @EthylKing...so effectively windowsill steeping is officially ok ..within reason..i.e dont actually store perfectly vapeable liquid in sunlight.

Now wondering if i can steal my african grey's daylight bulb or the uv one out the air conditioner without my missus noticing ;-)

Could possibly install the uv one in my steeping cupboard and run it off a timer for a few hours at night..
She was giving me funny looks when i had my bottles out sunbathing yesterday..god knows what she'll make of their mini sunbed ;-)

 

[B1mble]

IMO keeping it warm is the key to steeping. Essentially steeping is a complex set of chemical reactions. In general, the rate of a chemical reaction will double for each 10C rise in temperature. So, for example, if a custard takes a month at room temperature (call it 20C) it ought to take two weeks at 30C, or one week at 40C. Beyond that, you'd have to watch out for thermal degradation of the materials in the mix.

Then there is the question of how much oxygen is involved. You can keep it as hot as you like, but if it needs oxygen and can't get it, the reaction can't happen. When thinking about flavour (in a chemical sense) my gut feeling would be to keep oxygen away from the juice as far as possible. I'd be inclined to suspect that oxygen will degrade flavour in the longer term and certainly will degrade nicotine. In the shorter term it may accelerate desirable reactions in the juice. Very few elements are as destructive as oxygen, but since we live on the stuff we don't realise this.

This is not from any specific knowledge of flavour stuff, just first principles of chemistry.

 

[EthelKing]

My overall view is a lot simpler. Don't overcomplicate things. I've been mixing for over two years and have never experienced any issues, and I mix for personal use and in litre plus volumes for an ever increasing group of friends, and friends of friends, and their friends too! Ha ha.

None of this needs to be particularly complicated - just remember that when you've made a juice you like, make two decent amounts - use a premade favourite for a week or so whilst your first bottle does its thing and then tuck into your first bottle, when you're half way through , mix up another volume and then you have a rolling steeped stock.

Enjoy the mixing, and like all good wines allow them to mature slowly. Maybe give them a kick start in the beginning to get them started, but let them do their thing, and the majority will taste good.



@twoeyedbob - I wouldn't take my word as gospel, B1mble is a lot more technically clued up than i'll ever be, but I've got a bottle of base on the go that sits on the windowsill in the kitchen, and it has discoloured a fraction in six months, and makes delicious juice!

 

[B1mble]

@twoeyedbob - I wouldn't take my word as gospel, @B1mble is a lot more technically clued up than i'll ever be, but I've got a bottle of base on the go that sits on the windowsill in the kitchen, and it has discoloured a fraction in six months, and makes delicious juice!

Experience (Which I don't have) trumps intuition almost every time. I used to be s chemist but that was a long time ago.

Go with what works!

I no longer have access to the sort of (frighteningly expensive) kit needed to test this stuff. I'd want GC/MS and NMR machines and probably IR and UV spectrophotometers (That little lot would buy all the houses in my street at central London prices) and a good colorimeter. And my knowledge of that sort of kit is a long way out of date. And I'll bet none of it is cheaper than it was in 1982. I know how to do this stuff the hard (i.e., without fancy hardware and computers) way, but you can't afford to ask how much money and how many years that would take. Trust me, the fancy stuff is well worth the money.

 

[Rohaq]

I actually found a good way of doing warm water steeping using this:

Zyliss Cafetiere Hot Mug, Red: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

Basically, it's great for warm water steeping - The double wall keeps the water from losing its heat too quickly, and the cafetiere means you can change the depth of the base to partially submerge your bottle without playing around too much with water levels.

 

[twoeyedbob]

:-)
Sorry ..wrong thread

 

[Mostly]

Some custard arrived yesterday, one on the left has been in the ultrasonic since Thursday lunchtime had quite a few cycles