Bamboo Charcoal - How often do you replace it?

[Pentox]

That's why there's been a solution to this problem for a while now. The lack of a nucleation site for boiling water is not something unique for microwaving water. There are many easy ways to provide such a site. Chemists have the same problem when heating using hot plates and sand baths. The precaution used in that case is to use a device called a boiling chip. Basically a small porus rock that is placed in the solution that does not dissolve, but provides a nucleation site. Other solutions are to use a wooden stick, toothpick, or anything else that is porus. You could even use a piece of charcoal and possibly improve your water quality.

Not a hard problem to avoid.

[Pentox]

Yes, overreaction, yes. Everyday things can kill you, you can get hit by a bus on your way to work, etc.

I know I'm picking a fight here but:

However, how many 'rough' pyrex dishes have you seen?

The site does not even have to be very sizeable. A scratch on the bottom of a pyrex dish will suffice. So just take an engraver and scratch your name on the inside of the dish. It'll do the job and nobody will steal it.

[Bubba_tea]

IIRC Alton Brown tested this a long time ago on his Good Eats show. Boiling water in everyday kitchenware is going to be a-ok with the stick in there. The problem is going to be more likely in lab equipment where you're dealing with distilled water with much smoother surfaces that don't have a likely 'nucleation' site (man... that's a cool word!). I also believe that with a carosel in most microwaves moves the water enough to get the bubbles to form. If you youtube....

This is what you don't want... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqqpDF4bVw

Ahhh... mythbusters - maybe you should just stick a toothpick (clean) in there.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_OXM4mr ... re=related

[Janine]

Thanks for the warnings on boiling the water.

I used a large Pyrex measuring cup and it visibly boiled in the micro

But I also ordered a new kettle

edit: but if I try this again perhaps I'll throw in a toothpick... might even work as a bit of a filter

[ABx]

If you want to learn more about Bamboo Charcoal and its avantages over regular charcoal, have a look at the video from the link Tenuki provided. There is a wealth of info here:

http://www.blacktonature.com/cctv_tech.shtml

They're comparing bamboo charcoal to regular charcoal, not activated carbon. As an example they talk about bamboo charcoal having over 300^3, more than regular charcoal. Activated carbon, on the other hand, has over 500^3 per gram. You can see the Wikipedia article on it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon

No offense, but exaggeration isn't surprising from a charcoal dealer showing a promotional video called "Miraculous bamboo charcoal." I don't see any explicit claims being made beyond what regular (and cheaper) activated carbon does. The exception is the minerals in the charcoal, which they are careful not to explicitly say ends up in the water (just that it's in the bamboo charcoal).

The point of charcoal is that once it's burned down like that, nothing but the carbon structure is left. Unless they're not burning it all the way, it shouldn't be leeching off anything into the water, otherwise charcoal wouldn't be fit for use in filtering. There have been avid debates about charcoal's ability to release substances into the water, but scientific study doesn't back up any more than small amounts - which activated carbon vendors, unsurprisingly, use to their advantage in advertising ("Ours leeches less phosphates, so ours is better! Never mind that it's probably not enough to make a difference").

There was a study done on this here:
http://www.cababstractsplus.org/google/ ... 0043089948

Basically it didn't release much of anything but sodium, but did well enough with filtration. One thing that carbon is famously good for, however, is harboring colonies of nitro-spira (good bacteria that breaks ammonia down to nitrates - which makes good plant fertilizer )

Just to be clear: I'm not denying that charcoal improves water, I'm just saying that I'm more than skeptical that there's anything bamboo charcoal does that activated carbon doesn't do as well or better. I'd rather just save my money and use regular charcoal. If the Brita wasn't doing it for me, however, I'd just switch brands - Brita is about the poorest of the competition because it's so lose that the water flows through much faster (so it filters less), but it's perfectly fine for my water which is pretty decent to begin with.

[ABx]

in my experience it _adds_ ?sweetness?, ?thickness?. I britta my water before using it. but the problem with seattle water is it's too soft. the britta doesn't do anyting but make the water taste crisper (and not like clorine). I should get a water chemistry kit to see what's happening, but I can taste the difference. My target taste is basically Fiji bottled water, but don't want to buy that all the time due to carbon footprint issues so I've been playing around trying to find a cheaper compromise. I have a number of theories, but so far too lazy to test them since I have a reliable method to get close to the taste I want.

Have you tried trace mineral drops? I've been considering getting some just to try. That's what they typically use to harden reverse osmosis water, although it's also sold as a health supplement (DIY mineral water). I know too much can make it taste bad, but I've heard that using small amounts can make it taste sweeter. I suspect that if you just used a few drops at a time, enough to give it a more natural balance, then it would probably just taste like good water (assuming you're using good clean water to begin with).

If you do get a kit, make sure that it measures both kH (carbonate hardness) and gH (general hardness). General hardness would be the main thing, but carbonate hardness is the one that will make the water more or less alkaline. Brita removes a small amount of kH, which they say improves things like tea and coffee aroma, but only to a very small amount (it dropped the pH in my water by only about .15).

[tenuki]

I'm intending to get some brewers carbinate and other water conditioners brewers have used for years and try them out. I haven't found any mafia (sic) stones yet, but i'll try those when I do. Seattle tap water is very very good, just too soft.

Bottom line for me though is taste, I could care less about theory.

[Warden Andy]

I'm intending to get some brewers carbinate and other water conditioners brewers have used for years and try them out.

Calcium carbonate isn't very water soluble, so it won't add much hardness. Brewers don't add it to harden water, but to raise the ph when mashing grains.

It might seem like homebrew shops sell a lot of different things to harden water, but they only sell 2 or 3 that add just plain general hardness. Gypsum seems to add sweetness, and calcium chlorite adds crispness, or even bitterness when too much is added.

[tenuki]

Cool, good to know. Gypsum and calcium chlorite it will be then. Something I noticed when I was taste testing a large variety of bottled waters for tea. It seems that the ones with high silicate counts were the ones I favored, ie my favorite is Fuji. Do you know if that can be added to water?