Next
time you watch the landlord pull a foamy pint of your favourite ale, spare a
momentary thought for the plastic engineering that’s been part of the intricate
brewing process – then order a bag of nuts.
There
are many elements to the brewing process notwithstanding selecting the finest
hops (plentiful here in Kent), malted barley and pure water. Then on to
malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning,
filtering and packaging. Each is important but perhaps the more crucial stages
are the conditioning and filtration steps – these temper the finished quality,
free of imperfections and biological contaminants. After all, who wants a
foaming pint alive with contamination !
And – if you thought
your glass of wine was simply a glass of rich, sun-baked hillside vines … think
again: Wine is a product of microbial activity requiring a warm, food rich
environment for friendly microbes to convert natural sugars into fine tasting
beverages.
Unfortunately, a
pleasant home for useful microbes is an equally hospitable hangout for any
strains of wild yeast and bacteria gaining ingress to the fermentation vessel.
And having arrived, all impart certain flavours to the beverage,
producing signature wine faults that fancy-pants Vintners like to claim they
can distinguish. However, whatever the flavour imparted, the general
rule is these unwelcome bacteria all spoil
wine, producing medicinal (think antiseptic), animal (think
rodent cage or barnyard), or microbial (think yeasty and sour) flavours,
all which are pretty nasty.
To combat these bacterial infections, Odour Lock uses
cutting edge nanotechnology used in the medical industry to filtrate harmful
bacteria from blood, plasma and bodily gasses. The result is Sterilock, the World's First
Antibacterial Airlock.
Fitted directly to the fermentation vessel or
seated on top of existing water based airlocks, it's patented Bacteriaex seal
allows the venting of Co2 molecules whilst preventing 99.9% of larger bacteria,
yeasts and other fungi from gaining access to fermenting beverages. Making it
possible for the first time in Home Brew history to guarantee the exclusion of
those 'flavours' from wines, beers and other alcoholic beverages.
However, enabling Sterilock's to be fitted to a
diverse range of existing water based airlocks wasn't straightforward. As
Richard Cook, Odour Lock's Technical Director explains:
“Finding an endcap of
a size, shape and shore hardness (flexibility) to meet the design brief wasn't easy.
It required the testing of numerous samples supplied by Sinclair & Rush
until the exact combination was found”.
The
result is a patented, low cost lid enabling the World's first antibacterial
airlock to be fitted to virtually all existing 'S' Bend water locks.' A
solution already reaping dividends as the largest distributors in the UK and
Australasia place orders for Sterilocks and Odour Lock looks towards expansion
in the US and the rest of Europe. As Richard further explains:
“Water based airlock's
are used by Home Brewers throughout the world, making Sterilock an instant
global product. A couple more lids may be needed to secure the entire global
market, but by continuing to work closely with Sinclair and Rush we're
confident there won't be a Home Brewer in the world that won't benefit from
antibacterial brewing.”
Many
thanks to Richard Cook, MD of innovative Odour Lock (www.odourlock.com), for this ‘good news’
contribution to our blog this month. I personally will treat my beer and this
evening’s glass of wine with even more respect than usual.
Think
Plastic ~ Cheers
We work with manufacturing companies in the UK & Europe, who have problems protecting or finishing their products. We manufacture and supply solutions for this through a wide variety of plastic mouldings, caps, plugs and sleeves, which means they... or indeed you.... reduce the risk of damage or contamination, so your customers receive a top quality product every time.
