Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Weighting down fruit

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Weighting down fruit

    I've got a few recipes that use a a myriad of fruit which I bag up in muslin. They tend to all float to the top. I'm looking at between 5-10 lbs per bag. Obviously there's a lot of water weight contributing to the buoyancy, would it be enough to throw a tri-clamp in there to weigh it down or does the weight have to be heavier than the fruit?

  • #2
    Originally posted by adw1984 View Post
    I've got a few recipes that use a a myriad of fruit which I bag up in muslin. They tend to all float to the top. I'm looking at between 5-10 lbs per bag. Obviously there's a lot of water weight contributing to the buoyancy, would it be enough to throw a tri-clamp in there to weigh it down or does the weight have to be heavier than the fruit?
    It does not have to be heavier than the fruit. Hopefully I have this answer right. Archimedes principle stated that the buoyancy force on an object is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. This is its natural displacement and it does not have to be fully submerged. I'm sure someone here can correct my mistakes.

    If you know the volume of beer displaced by the fruit, then you can calculate the weight of that amount of beer. Then you can add that amount of weight to the fruit to equal the buoyant force. (You would also have to include the weight of the beer displaced by the added weight, I think). That should allow your fruit bag to have neutral buoyancy. Surface tension can play a factor when dealing with certain items.

    Throw a chunk of your fruit into a graduated beaker of beer. If you have 1000ml beer, and the fruit displaces 100ml (1100ml total), you can estimate that your fruit will need at least the weight of 100ml of beer to achieve neutral buoyancy. Water weighs 1gm per 1ml (at least at our likely temperature for these purposes) and if you have a beer specific gravity of 1.015 then 1ml of beer would weigh 1.015gm. That means you would need to add (100ml x 1.015gm) a total of 101.5gm of mass to match the buoyant force. If the added weight object displaces another 10ml, then you would need to add another 10.15gm of weight for a total of 111.65gm of weight to become neutrally buoyant. Anything more than the 111.65gm should allow you to overcome any buoyant force and sink to the bottom.

    Hopefully that is the correct way of approaching the equation, lol. You would still need to measure the displacement volume of your TC and your fruit to know an exact answer.

    Comment


    • #3
      UnFermentable has it. Water weighs about 8.2 lb/gal for those of us in Myanmar and Liberia and the US. I.e use eight pounds per gallon of fruit/spice/other in the bag and you’re good to go. This takes me back to fresh hop season

      Comment


      • #4
        I appreciate it y'all. I was planning to move to bigger bags and get that weight up. Thanks!

        Comment

        Working...
        X