# Boiling Stones for Degassing



## Cracked Cork (Jun 22, 2007)

I have experimented with boiling stones dropped into the carboy to help in degassing. THEY WORKED. They reduced the time needed to degass my carboy and helped drive the gass of at lower pressures. The ones I tried were Tamer Tabs, non reactive and food safe. They did not cause a valcano like the mentoes in the soda which is not what I wanted, but just as sooon as the pressure was reduced it started to bubble away much more than withouth the tabs.

Crackedcork


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## PeterZ (Jun 22, 2007)

Cracked, I mentioned boiling stones in one of the many threads on degassing. Where did you get them? Are they the little ones I used in Chem Lab in college, or are they bigger? How many did you use?


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## Cracked Cork (Jun 22, 2007)

Maybe George can get a hundred pounds of them and sel them to us  I think t he lab ones are marble?? Not sure, these are not supposed to react with anything. I used about a half capfull, I know, not very good measure but if you probably have to experiment with whatever you get to see.

http://www.sargentwelch.com/product...nes,+Glass+Beads+and+Tamer+Tabs&amp;trade;_E_

Crackedcork

*Edited by: Cracked Cork *


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## rgecaprock (Jun 22, 2007)

I looked at that site and I'm not quite on earth on that one. How does it work and why. What are the stones made of? Does it effect the quality of the wine? 
Thanks, Ramona*Edited by: rgecaprock *


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## Cracked Cork (Jun 22, 2007)

Ramona, have you seen the videos of people putting mentos candies in some soda? Give it a try to see how it works. These are supposed to be nonreactive so it wont chemically interact with the wine so wont hurt quality as far as I can tell. Crackedcork


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## Tminus5 (Aug 27, 2007)

Boiling stones (boiling chips) are made from glass or porcelain (sometimes marble). In fact - most you will find in a high school laboratory are made from broken up old toilets!

Ok, so now that I drove everyone away from using ones from their local high school... I might suggest grabbing a cheapy marble tile from your local Home Depot and busting it up into pieces for this kind of use - after a quick wash to remove any dust and maybe a K-meta soak just in case.

Travis


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## Wade E (Aug 27, 2007)

Welcome Tminus and o share your chemical background or whatever wine experience you have.


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## Tminus5 (Aug 27, 2007)

Thanks for the welcome Wade - been lurking here for about 4 months. Was awaiting getting setup in our new home before I start my winemaking endevors.

Seems about that time - and happy coincidence, my birthday is coming up in 2 weeks! Look forward to sharing my experience and asking questions here.

Maybe I'll have to head over to FVW this week to scope out the shop. My company is in the Dallas area, but I live in New Mexico.


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## Wade E (Aug 27, 2007)

Dont forget to sign up for the Birthday club to get a coupon that you can use. Not sure if you can use it in conjunction with the 5% off first time order though!


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## PeterZ (Aug 28, 2007)

The boiling stones I used in college were carborundum, a porous rock. The rough texture encourages tiny bubbles to coalesce around them, forming larger bubbles. The same equation that is used to calculate how fast particles heaver than a liquid will settle applies to how fast bubbles will rise. A big factor is size, with bigger being faster. Think of a rock falling faster through water than a grain of sand.


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 28, 2007)

Instead of pinching some from a lab where you have no idea what they were used in after they were recycled its easier to just buy a bottle of them of your own and not have to worry about contaminants. They also have teflon TFE chips. All of them you can use, then wash up and reuse over and over. Crackedcork


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 30, 2007)

None of you guys have tried this yet? Crackedcork


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## laneygirl (Oct 22, 2007)

Are the Tamer Tabs the same as TFE chips or are they a different kind of boiling stone? I haven't tried it yet, but am wanting to try taking some measures to degas since my first batches suffered from some CO2 bite when first opened. Please explain what steps you used these on and how you actually prepare them for use. Do you just drop them in at bulk aging or ?? Thanks.


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