WANTED: Your best Hagen CO2 recipes!

[stanley]

Just thought id add that i recently bought a little heater pad from the home brew shop on line works wonders !£20 WELL SPENT!!Just plug in and it keeps the yeast nice and worm,much better output.

[Kris]

hey --
i added some yeast on top per cheeseybacon's post and it has really ramped up the output!
the bubbles are coming out in batches of three and then a brief pause and then three more. it may burn out faster, but...
i did boil the water sugar mix (and then ended up adding more water to meet the level inside the bottle)
kris

[GTApuffgal]

I tried Champagne yeast with baking soda and got nothing... Went back to the dependable bread yeast and baking soda (1/2 teaspoon yeast and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and I mix up the yeast and lukewarm water first and let it sit while I mix up the rest of the ingredients), but I might try the champagne yeast again. I also tried the packet that came with the system, but got no action. Although there was an issue of no check valve and water flowing back into the canister, so I'll probably give that another try too. Will post results here.

I am finding that the bubbles are travelling through the ladder at the rate of about 10-11bpm, however, they are cruising straight to the surface of the water upon exit. I pushed the ladder as low as it would go in the tank. Should I raise it closer to the surface? There are a lot of little bubbles all over my water surface. Is this normal/good? Or am I losing it all???

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by GTApuffgal

they are cruising straight to the surface of the water upon exit. I pushed the ladder as low as it would go in the tank. Should I raise it closer to the surface? There are a lot of little bubbles all over my water surface. Is this normal/good? Or am I losing it all???

Nah, you are not losing it That's a sign that what you are injecting is not CO2 but air. Normal for a new batch for a day or two. Unless you have foaming problems, make sure you fill the sodabottles up pretty high. I usually leave only like two inches air space from the cap. Otherwise it can take a couple of days until the mixture has replaced all the air and produces pure CO2.

Bubbles go up my ladder and become so small that they get stuck in the upper area, and a few bubbles combine their forces before they finally reach the surface. Sign that 99% or what percent of the CO2 is being dissolve.

Give it a little time

[GTApuffgal]

Thanks Wasserpest!

[john b.]

Ive been experimenting a bit lately with different recipes for my hagen unit and thought I'd post some ideas. I add the same amount of everything that most people have been(sugar up to the line,1/4 tsp. yeast,1 tsp. baking soda and fill to the top line on the cannister). To this I added a half of multi-vitamin crushed up because I read somewhere that it gives the yeast something more to feed off. It seems to work well, the mixture lasted longer then usual.I think I read about it in TFH magazine a few months back. They also suggested adding either mollases or frozen fruit juice. I didn't have the mollases or fruit juice so I added a tsp. of frozen Italian ice which seems to work even better then the vitamin. Give it a try next time you refill your recipies and post the results. Good luck,
John

[heizenberg1980]

I never had much luck with it. I tried it 6 or 7 times, with 2 liter bottles and the provided "bottles". I tried to be very scientific with it each time. I had 2 bottles and ladders mixed at exactly the same time with exactly the same water and formula. Sometimes it would work very well, sometimes it would be a dud. Seems like the trick was to have the water hot enough to help the yeast along but not too hot to kill it. I never had one last for more than a week or so. It was a big production, and an even bigger mess every single time. I invested in a 10 lb pressurized co2 tank with regulator, and have never looked back. I use an Up-Aqua atomizer with a "bazooka" tube to diffuse the co2 directly into the return hose from my canister filter. I rigged the return so it came out halfway deep in the water of my 75 gallon tank. The bubbles come out almost microscopic. It works great and minimal equipment in the tank makes it look great! After setup cost is about 10 bucks every 2 1/2 months to get the tank filled. About 2 minutes with some teflon tape and a wrench, 5 minutes to dial it in and... done. Besides that, the look of wonder on the guys faces at the welding shop makes me laugh everytime. My point is I guess it all really BOILS (see what I did there?) down to whats your time, effort, buying yeast, pounds of sugar, etc... really worth? Ask yourself, why don't I ride a bicycle to work everyday? Because the car has been invented... I didn't mean to ramble or be a wizenheimer, but it really is much much better.