UV Steeping?

[EthelKing]

A little while back I noticed that a bottle of my homebrew which I left on the kitchen windowsill seemed to darken and blend significantly quicker than the ones I keep in the cool dark place. That set me thinking - given that we don't generally have a lot of sunshine in the UK, and in the future months my accelerated steeping might hit a bit of a wall!

I bought a UV light box and mixed up some vanilla custard, and given that I am sitting here bored, thought it might be a good idea to take a piccie at various stages of the juice having a bit of a sunbathe in the box. Here are the results, from raw mix to an hour "under the lamps"...

View attachment 10224

So, is this something anyone else does? It's quite a bonus having a raw mix being vapable within an hour!

 

[Vapemonkey1980]

I know someone who uses a black light lamp as were all the rage a few years.

Apparently it works a treat.

Which is a bollocks, as I have one, but no idea where the feck it is!

 

[Patrick_FlavourVapour]

I haven't done that myself as of yet but I have found leaving it to steep near a sunbathed window speeds it up.
Where did you get your UV Light box? Or is it a home creation?

 

[whit77]

I had a go in the window though

A couple of pages in

http://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/14381-Difference-a-good-steep-makes

 

[leisureliquids]

Dexter great experiment, what was the difference in before and after taste?

 

[EthelKing]

@Patrick_FlavourVapour I got the lamp from eBay - here. My wife wanted one to cure some kind of nail varnish - but it wasn't what she wanted, so it has become my magical juice acceleration machine instead - and it's not pink, which is a bonus! The unit itself has 4 UV tubes and a timer built in (which I don't use), it is very sturdy and has a UK moulded plug and spare fuse for the unit - a very good buy for the price, I was very impressed. Shipping was fast too.

@leisureliquids - Mate, the taste goes from being able to identify each of the constituent parts, to a nice blend of them - I reckon that the result is comparable to two days on the windowsill. The juice continues to blend over the next day or so - but I fill a 10ml bottle and start on it as soon as the colour and smell have changed after an hour or so on the juice sunbed!

@whit77 - It looks as though we got about the same result - windowsill in two hours - juice sunbed in an hour. Good to know that when summer ends, I can still steep my gear without having to book a trip to sunnier climes - oh, hang on, there could be a bit of a bonus there

 

[Purplefowler]

awesome idea Dexter. Great pictures too. I always window steep mine now, especially as my nic levels are low enough for it not to matter too much if I lose a fraction of strength

 

[ZT]

My only concern is : doesnt Nicotine degrade and go red under UV light ?

 

[EthelKing]

My only concern is : doesnt Nicotine degrade and go red under UV light ?

ZT - Not that I've noticed mate - the fruit ones I've mixed stayed very light in colour after the UV sunbed - BUT, in the interests of "kitchen science", I have mixed up a batch of 15mg flavourless juice and will do a before and after experiment, along with a nic content test before and after to see what happens. Might take a bit longer to get the results up, as I'm in the middle of doing the dinner for the kids and waiting for my wife to get in from work. But it will be done.

 

[Pyr0]

Hmm, pink mule say that their GVC has been steeped for over 2 weeks...
I got 2 bottles in the post today, 1x 0mg and 1x 6mg. This is how they look:

The 0mg one is very pale, but the 6mg is a nice amber

Funny thing is they put the raised warning triangle sticker on the 0mg bottle, but nothing on the 6mg