P E R L A G E

S Y S T E M S

I N C .

Factors Affecting Carbonation and Dilution Levels in Perlini Drinks

September 8, 2009

Perlage Systems, Inc. 1507 Western Ave. #606 info@perlagesystems.com www.perlagesystems.com www.perlini.biz

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1 Factors Affecting Carbonation in Perlini

Carbonated drinks made with Perlini are extremely easy to make. There are some basic considerations, however, that need to be understood to produce the best results. This document examines the most important factors affecting the uptake, retention, and efflux of CO2 in the Perlini System, and other factors affecting the quality of the resulting cocktails.

1.1

Temperature

Temperature of the liquids being carbonated is by far the most important variable in the proper use of Perlini. All other things being equal, the capacity of a liquid to absorb CO2 is much greater for lower liquid temperatures. As illustrated by the graph below, the difference in the amount of CO2 that can dissolve in a liquid at near freezing temperatures versus room temperature (~25 C) is about a factor of two, which is the difference between a barely carbonated drink and a vigorously carbonated drink. Warm liquids simply will not carbonate satisfactorilythis is just physics. So, the liquid ingredients must be shaken over ice for good effect (or all the liquids used must be prechilled to refrigerator temperatures, which is generally not practical). To ensure that the liquids being carbonated are at the optimal temperature, always completely fill the lower half of the shaker with ice..

1.2

Pressure

The Perlini shaker must be pressurized fully to the pre-set pressure to work properly. If the headspace of the Perlini shaker is not fully pressurized, there may not be a sufficient reservoir of CO2 in the headspace to fully carbonate the liquid ingredients. If the lower half of the shaker is completely filled with liquid and ice, and the headspace is filled to the proper pressure, there will barely be enough CO2 to effect proper carbonation (but see the section entitled Volume of Liquid below).

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The regulator will stop the flow of gas at the proper pressure (~60 psi) with both the hand-held unit and the commercial pressurizer. Make sure there are no leaks from either the O-ring area or the seal in the cap. If you hear no audible leaking, and the flow of CO2 has stopped, then the shaker should be at the proper pressure.

1.3

Shaking the Cocktail

CO2 can only be absorbed into solution through the liquid-gas interface, which is only a few square inches for Perlini. Shaking is what causes the CO2 to dissolve into solution quickly: the splashing caused by the agitation dramatically increases the liquid surface area through which CO2 is absorbed. If the pressurized Perlini were left to sit, it would take hours for the CO2 to dissolve into solution; shaking reduces that time to seconds. There is a balance, however, between shaking too hard which creates many small suspended bubbles, and hence nucleation sites (see below), and not shaking hard enough or long enough to dissolve the CO2. 5 - 10 seconds of moderately hard shaking is usually optimal; but this is something that every user will have to develop a feel for.

1.4

Volume of Liquid

The greater the liquid volume that you are trying to carbonate, the less CO2 there is in the headspace of the shaker to dissolve into the liquid and create effervescence. The Perlini prototype unit is really meant to be a single-cocktail device, with typically no more than four or five ounces of liquid ingredients. If the lower half of the shaker is filled to the brim with liquid ingredients, you may have to shake, re-pressurize, and shake again to get enough CO2 into solution.

1.5

Nucleation

All bubbles that you see rising out of a carbonated beverage form either on existing bubbles trapped in scratches in the glassware, or bubbles trapped on impurities like lint or dust, or on dissolved particles with rough surfaces. These "seeds" are called nucleation sites. Clear ingredients (e.g., spirits, water, cranberry juice) have fewer nucleation sites than cloudy ingredients (e.g., orange juice, lime juice, pineapple juice, coffee), and tend not to lose CO2 as rapidly in the decompression, resting, and pouring phases.

1.6

Settling Period

Notice that when the cap is slowly loosened to relieve the pressure, the carbonated liquid "blooms", or foams up. This is largely due to the fact that the shaking action creates a lot of fine bubbles, just as with a regular cocktail shaker. These little bubbles act as nucleation sites, causing the resulting bloom of foam--which is CO2 that never makes it to the customer's glass. The longer you wait for the bubbles to die down, the more CO2 will remain in solution. This has to be balanced against increased dilution and longer drink assembly times (see Section 2 regarding ice and dilution). Under most circumstances, 15-30 seconds should be sufficient. Very sweet, viscous drinks may require longer for the foam to die down, as the viscosity will cause the bubbles to persist longer.

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1.7

Post-Shaking Agitation

After the shaker is depressurized, any agitation from stirring or pouring will release CO2. Refrain from stirring in any extra ingredients after shaker is opened, and pour the cocktail quietly down the side of the glass. Tilting the glass, as with a draft beer, will help reduce the loss of CO2.

1.8

Type of Ice

The ice itself is a source of nucleation sites. The less surface area of the ice, and the smoother the ice, the better. Five or six cubes of cold-press ice is much better than crushed ice or ice in odd shapes. Also, the colder the ice, the colder the resulting cocktail, which means greater CO2 absorption, and the less dilution.

1.9

Alcohol Concentration

CO2 is very soluble in water; much less so in alcohol. So you will get the most carbonation with drinks that are less alcoholic and more dilute. Pure spirits will certainly carbonate, but much less so than cocktails that incorporate other low-or zero-proof mixers. Incidentally, liquids with higher alcohol concentration will also typically cause more dilution. Because alcohol lowers the freezing point of the solution, the resulting mixture after shaking will be colder with a high-alcohol content than with a low-alcohol content; and this implies that more ice must have melted to bring the temperature down further.

1.10

Acidity of Solution

The amount of CO2 that will dissolve in solution decreases slightly with increasing acidity. Thus, all other things being equal, tart drinks may absorb slightly less CO2. This is a very small effect, however.

1.11

Sugar Content

The amount of CO2 that will dissolve in solution decreases slightly with increasing sugar content. Thus, all other things being equal, sweet drinks may absorb slightly less CO2. This is also a very small effect.

1.12

Visual Clarity and Glassware

It is said that we drink with the eyes as much as the mouth, and this is very true with Perlini. Tall, narrow flutes will show off the bubbles better, both because of a longer bubble path as well as the fact that the opacity given to a cocktail by the pulp in juices is less evident in a narrow glass, allowing the bubbles to be seen better.

1.13

Surface Area and Glassware

All CO2 lost from a cocktail once it is in the glass is either from visible bubbles or invisible molecular diffusion at the top surface of the cocktail. In fact, under most circumstances, diffusion is usually by far the dominant mechanism (as much as five times greater). The smaller the surface area at the liquid-air interface, the less gas escapes. So, a tall narrow flute retains dissolved CO2 better than a coupe.

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2. Melting of Ice and Dilution

2.1 Physics of Melting Ice in Shaken Cocktails
In a shaken cocktail, the liquid ingredients start out at or around room temperature, typically around 76 F (25 C). The ice starts out at whatever temperature the freezer is set to, perhaps around 5 F (-15 C). (It is a common misconception that ice is always at 32 F. This is indeed the temperature that ice melts at, but it can be any temperature lower than 32 F; namely, whatever the freezer is set to). When the ice and liquid are mixed together, the liquid cools down, and the ice warms up. As the surface of the ice warms up to 32 F, it begins to melts. Now, here is the key point: It takes a great deal of energy to melt iceabout 80 calories per gram (this is known in physics as the heat of fusion). The energy required to melt the ice comes at the expense of the energy in the liquid; so, the absorption of energy from the liquid by the ice, which results in melting of the ice, actually cools the surrounding liquid. The ice continues to melt until the temperature of the liquid and ice mixture is at an equilibrium temperature where the liquid and the ice are at the same temperature (assuming that not all the ice has already melted before reaching equilibrium, which is a good assumption since a cocktail shaker generally contains a large enough volume of ice to bring the liquid to near-freezing temperatures). If the liquid in question is pure water, this temperature will be 32 F. If the liquid contains alcohol, this equilibrium temperature will be less than 32 F, as alcohol has a lower freezing point than water. Once the liquid-ice mixture reaches equilibrium, no further melting takes place unless heat is transferred into the system through the walls of the shaker. In the case of Perlini, the walls of which are extremely good thermal insulators (which is why your hand doesnt get cold when shaking it, as is the case with a metallic shaker), this is a very good approximation over the time scale of making a cocktail.

2.2

Calculation of Ice Melt

This equation describes the total amount of ice that will melt in a closed insulated system like Perlini: Ml x Cl x Tl = Mi x Ci x Ti + Mm x Cf Where Ml Mi Mm Cl Ci Cf Tl Ti = = = = = = = Initial mass of liquid Initial mass of ice Mass of melted ice Heat capacity of liquid Heat capacity of solid ice Heat of fusion of ice Change in temperature of liquid Change in temperature of ice Eqn. 1

Eqn. 1 assumes that a) there is enough ice to completely cool the liquid to equilibirium, and still have ice left; and b) over the timescale of the trial, the Perlini acts as a perfect insulator.

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Solving Eqn.1 for Mm, Mm = ((Ml x Cl x Tl) (Mi x Ci x Ti)) / Cf Assuming the liquid is water, and that the liquid starts out at 24 C and cools to 0 C, and the ice starts at -17 C and warms to 0 C, and given the following values: Ml Mi Cl Ci Cf Tl Ti = = = = = = = 100 g 200 g 1.0 cal/g deg 0.5 cal/g deg 80 cal/g deg 24 C 17 C

Then the amount of melted ice is Mm = ((100 x 1 x 24) (200 x 0.5 x 17))/80 Mm = 39 g This agrees well with experimental findings for pure water. The equation for alcohol water mixtures is somewhat more complicated, since the equilibrium temperature for a water/alcohol mixture is less than 32 F; and the degree to which it is lowered depends on the concentration of alcohol. It is further complicated by the fact that as the ice melts, the water/alcohol percentage goes up, changing the equilibrium temperature. This calculation is beyond the scope of this paper.

2.3

Rate of Ice Melting

All other things being equal, both the rate of ice melt and the rate of temperature decrease of the liquid are approximately proportional to the temperature difference between the ice and the liquid. The rate starts off high at first, because the difference in temperature between the liquid and ice is at its greatest, and drops to near zero as the equilibrium temperature is reached and the solid and liquid components become closer in temperature. This type of behavior is ubiquitous in the physical world, not just in thermodynamics. The extreme agitation of shaking a cocktail provides very intimate contact of the liquid and ice, ensuring an extremely rapid approach to equilibrium. Our experiments have shown that most of the cooling--and hence most of the melting of ice--takes place in the first 10 seconds of shaking. To examine the proposition that most melting takes place during shaking, a known quantity of various concentrations of vodka, from pure water to pure vodka, was shaken for various durations over approximately 200 g of ice (i.e., the bottom half of Perlini filled with ice). After shaking, the liquid was removed from Perlini, its volume measured, and then quickly put back in Perlini over the same ice. The increase in liquid volume, in milliliters, represents the amount of ice, in grams, melted during shaking. The mixture was then left to stand for an additional time in the Perlini, and the quantity of liquid was

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then measured again. In this manner, ice melt and liquid dilution can be measured over time, through the various stages of drink assembly, shaking, and resting. In trials with 50 g of pure vodka at 76 F, and 200 g ice at 15 F, the result was an average of 70 g of liquid after shaking 10 sec, or a dilution of ~40%. After returning the liquid to the Perlini over the same ice, and letting it stand for another minute, the volume of liquid was less than ~75 g, or an increase of less than 10%. Conclusion: Most of the ice melting takes place during shaking. Very little extra dilution takes place even after another minute, because the system is close to equilibrium.

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