StillSmart

l am interested to understand how quickly a lentil wash can be run?

Did I read somewhere that @ 30°C with a full time air pump 3 days was do-able?

Not sure you want air running full time, surely you want the yeast to use up all the air multiplying, then switch to anaerobic to make more alcohol

This topic came up a while back with the air pumps..here..I wouldn't do it full time because of the way Yeast work.

Yup! +1 what they said.

Primary fermentation finished in 3 days during the detailed trial but the aeration, using a 200 LPH pump and aquarium air curtain diffuser, was confined to the preparation of the wash before pitching.

I'm currently looking into wash agitation during fermentation to shorten total time to get a wash finished. I'll post when I work out how to achieve this while maintaining air tight seal. And yes I have asked myself if that is really necessary. Still working it out

AM

Excellent thanks Chaps.
Quite surprised about air before pitching.

What about a slow running magnetic stirrer. ....

I think the lentils might slow the stirrer down a tad

AM

A stirrer in the gunk would surely be slowed!
An aquarium heater,(mostly off due to Yeastie heat),usually a ferment is done in 3 days,(below .990),4 days would be the max expected with heat.
HTH

Robert.

nearly made a magnetic stirrer myself. It's basically a spinning magnet in a box. You stand you vessel on top and put plastic coated iron beads it a the wash and magnet spins them.

You can get quite a whirl pool going !

Been there done that viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2650

Boy, that was a long time ago It was a bit of a toy and I rarely use it these days but it definitely wouldn't cope with the lentils which would easily deflect the stir bar away from the spinning magnetic field.

AM

@Mashy: I am not quite sure why you want to do all these things to your wash.

As has been said by others, and will probably be said over and over again: An aerated wash is desirable until yeast is pitched. The multiplying yeast thrive on an oxygen rich environment.

However, once the yeast begins converting sugar to alcohol, they go into an anaerobic phase and the introduction of oxygen is counterproductive and ill advised.

Stirring the wash. If by some chance you cant leave your wash alone and feel you have to give it a stir (with or without magnets, et al.), do it gently so as to do no more than to get settled yeast back into suspension. BUT, if you have a healthy active ferment, you are getting all the stirring activity you will need.

Microx is a fascinating subject.
It is also v expensive professionally.
I fancy understanding happens it you attempt to keep the yeast running aerobic?

The theory says that they will turn all of your sugar to yeast.
A 25 litre bucket of yeast is one hell of a starter!

Robert.

“Microx “ This is a term I haven't come across before and did find some difficulty in locating information about it.

Ignoring its use as a brand name, and sticking to the fermenting process, this link was the best I found:

“https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RNkhL43EHWgC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=Microx+fermenting&source=bl&ots=gy1O0nSgoA&sig=YvwCVrWY-iIUKNm6rPa_dbrUB3s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X1geVbvyNMP2UIzZgPAI&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Microx%20fermenting&f=false

Here, it seems to be suggested that this is something done before, or after fermentation, but not during fermentation.

Maybe there is more information to be had?

Sorry about the above link. It does work if copied and pasted into browser.
It goes to page 73 of 'Wine for Dummies.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microoxygenation
Sounds like an aging thing, not a fast ferment thing. And if you want a fast lentil wash, just add some turbo yeast!