Aging with Wirelessly Powered Devices

[hertzbier]

Thought some of you might be interested in an approach we've taken for aging. Long story short, I was making a wood-aged homebrew a while back ("single malt scotch porter", which used hickory chipsand Islay scotch and came out great) and I was looking for ways to accelerate that process. Talked to a few of my buddies (we're engineers) about how we could make a device that we could drop into a carboy or a barrel to make it all go faster, and we got to tinkering and came up with a concept that seems to be working. The idea is to submerge an agitating device in a vessel and to power it wirelessly so that it can be left in for as long as needed...might only be days for mason jars or carboys, but could be years for full-size barrels...and to agitate the medium so that the interface between the wood and the spirit (or beer, wine, etc) would be in constant motion.

We started with charred oak chips in vodka just to see if/what would happen, and within 48 hours we could see a clear difference.

At the beginning.

Couple of Mason jars with charred oak chips and vodka, one on the left has an initial prototype and the one on the right is for comparison.

After 48 hours.

48 hours of agititation.

Since we thought we proved the concept in the Mason jars with wood chips, we wanted to see if this would be good for oak barrels too. We used a couple of medium toast 2L vinegar barrels because the cork top allowed us to take pictures and videos inside the barrel, and the spigot made it easy to get samples out of. We had to buy some 'shine at the store because I'm just starting to embark on making my own. We made another device and left it running inside the barrel continuously for 14 days, and the results were pretty convincing.

Two weeks in small barrels, glass on the left was agitated and the glass on the right was not.

I've been reading on HD about nuclear aging, aging with sound, etc, so I've been inspired by these posts and wanted to share with y'all. We've got some videos of what it looks like when it's working in a barrel on our website if you're interested (http://www.hertzbier.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow). Think we're gonna get some bigger barrels next and keep the R&D going. If anyone's got ideas/questions/suggestions, would love to hear from you. Cheers!

[Tap]

Can you go further into what this agitater actually is and how it funtions?

Interesting concept

[moosemilk]

That agitator looks like one of those remote control vibrating egg type sex toys lol...had a friend that worked in a sex shop and some of the things they have....
Although the concept of vibration...but plastics soaking in the hooch? have to find another casing that would work like stainless

[hertzbier]

Moosemilk - that's pretty accurate. Been trying to avoid the obvious comparison, especially since "it'll get it there faster" is really the claim

I was hesitant to mention it on HD because of the plastic housing, unfortunately we can't use metal because it blocks the wireless signal and we wouldn't be able to power it. We looked at ceramic but the price gets out of hand quickly. On the bright side, the housing hasn't been a deterrent for anyone (yet), and my background is in plastics so I've got a good grip on this stuff.

Tap - the agitator is a DC motor and the electronics to run it. The thing is designed to accept a wireless power signal and to drive the motor. Not a trivial engineering challenge, since part of the goal is to make this useful for productuon environments...we have to be able to power the device in 53G barrels with 1 inch thick oak staves and to use the amount of power it takes to run a LED light bulb. Took some time and effort to figure that one out, but also forced us to make it really simple to use.

Thanks for asking.

[moosemilk]

I play a bit with rc cars (love my nitro buggy). Stainless housing...use the housing itself. solder the rx wire to the metal housing, that way the metal itself becomes your antenna. As long as it's a conductive material, no problem. Just a thought. I've played with rc cars all my life, and side band radio, and am a sound tech (glorified DJ lol). Always a way to fix wireless problems. Just gotta work around a bit. I love the idea you have though. Also, magic being another hobby, there are other devices out that could be used in same manner. Vibration devices are discretely used to manipulate objects like nuts on bolts held in hand (sorry if I spoiled that illusion on anybody).

*edit* as an afterthought, you could always put a belt type contraption around the outside of the container. Using vibration by the motor attached to the belt. Vibration will transfer through the vessel. Much the same as sonic aging but more direct without anything in the product

[hertzbier]

Thanks for the tips, moose. If it were solely a communications issue you'd be spot on with the metal housing as an antenna, but in this case it's a proximity issue, and the housing can't have any EM shielding. It's analogous to the wireless charging pads for cells phones (or toothbrushes).

And you are absolutely correct about an external belt, it's also something we looked at and we even took a shot at designing. We ended up choosing to keep it as discreet as possible and to also be compatible with existing infrastructure, and we wanted something that could appeal to homebrewers and home distillers as well. There are always different approaches that could be taken though, it's the reality of developing new technology. Many thanks for taking the time to offer up your ideas.

[badbird]

Have watched your posts on the ADI forum with interest. Are you sure the HDPE housing is the right choice for long term exposure at cask strengt? Good or bad, it won't comply with the materials rules here.

[hertzbier]

badbird - like I mentioned above, I was hesitant to post anything about it on these forums, I did read the rules and I understand the concerns. There has been plenty written and debated about HDPE here, on ADI and elsewhere. It's the best material for the application in our opinions. Ceramics and glass would be unique, but the manufacturing costs and durability issues outweigh their inertness. Metals won't work for this application, and we even thought about approaches for using wood until we realized assembly would require some sort of adhesive that could leach. Thanks for the note, we're slowly getting out and talking about it because it's questions and feedback from potential users that helps more than anything.

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

What about using PTFE instead of HDPE?

[hertzbier]

It would be a viable option, but it complicates manufacturing considerably. I don't think we need the higher temperature resistance it offers during the aging portion of the process. Great material, just expensive and challenging to work with. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

It was not the temperature resistance that I was thinking about. More the resistance to ethanol and other alcohols. More so then HDPE

[NZChris]

I don't know that 'aging' is the right word to use here. Coloring and/or flavoring might be closer.

Any action that moves the saturated layer away from the wood will speed up both coloring and flavoring from the wood, but 'aging' is more than just color and flavor from the wood.

[chrig]

I expected this to be similar to a stir plate on opening, i'm sure a fair few people have those in their brewing kit for making large yeast starters.