Remove Bubbles Suspended In A Thick Edible Syrup

GA Usbport. As this is food processing, it is highly likely that the gases are CO2 from biological processes before the syrup is bottled. Heating slowly to the boiling point followed by cooling is a method used to de-aerate water or in this case remove the CO2 from syrup. If the user is bottling the syrup while the syrup is still hot, there may be gases still trapped in it. It would be much easier to remove the CO2 before the bottling rather than trying to remove the same gases as an added process. The maple syrup industry has similar issues but are avoided by the slow boil. If bacteria get into the syrup afterwards but prior to bottling, these CO2 gases appear.

As an aside, sometimes when you pour a glass of water that looks good, you may see bubbles that form around the meniscus. If these bubbles linger around more than a few seconds, I would suspect some bacteria contamination. The agitation of the water filling the glass will release CO2 created by bacteria. Hopefully, the syrup is not bacteria contaminated.

I have no idea if this would work and I would be interedted to hear comments from the rest of the community:

Perhaps you could put a blanket purge gas over the mixture - like Helium - that would displace the air from the mixing chamber.

Would Helium be less likley to become entraned in the mixture? or perhaps even release easier?

If you are going to go to the trouble of building a vacuum chamber, this idea, if it worked, seems like it would be easier to implement.

Just a thought.

Regards,

Paul

My gut reaction is a gas is a gas. While I'm sure the act of mixing would entrap the same amount of gas, He might more easily rise to the surface, I don't know.

Hope this doesn't burst your bubble.

You might try attaching a vibrator to the wall of the vessel holding the mixture. It may allow the bubbles to rise to the surface and pop. I have seen such vibrators (little air motors with offset counter weights on the driven shaft) used in the printing industry to allow ink tanks to be bubble free. Mind you the viscosity was much less, but the principal is the same and may meet your needs. Heating the mixture at the same time would also help.

GA from me. Years ago I saw a demonstration by a manufacturer of molded resin sinks and bathtubs. The mold full of **THICK** resin was put on a vibrator table to expel the air bubbles.

Can you make your stirring device submerged well below the surface so as to minimize entrained air?

Reverse the polarity on the blender connections & blend in the opposite direction for EXACTLY the same time as the first attempt?

Xanthum gum is very hard to disperse in water before it dissolves. I tried using it to thicken some home-made orange liquor and could not get it to work (just got lumps in my booze). I'm sure that's why you used the blender. I have not tried it, but I wonder if you might have better success by pre-mixing the xanthum powder with something like corn starch, which would allow you to use a slower mixer and not get those super fine bubbles.

I recently did some molding with an implant grade silicon compound that is very thick. My first thought was vacuum but that created way too much expansion and foaming. I discovered that pouring it from one container to another worked fairly well. You have to pour it very slowly a fairly long fall so that the stream narrows so thin that it causes the bubbles to pop. It seems to work fairly well and you don't need any special equipment.

Yes, putting the mixture under vacuum will remove the bubbles, but make sure that you allow for the large increase in volume as the vacuum is being applied. The company I work for makes simmilar polymer based solution and that is the method that we always use to degas them.

Mixing below inert gas will be a good idea to prevent oxidation if the stuff can react with oxygen from included air.

But bubble inclusion will take place nearly as much as with air.

If you can mix below steam then there will be no problem as with condensation this will be hot only at the surface and condense to water and thin the stuff again but not introduce bubbles.

RHABE

I would also have to recommend keeping the mixing blades low enough and slow enough to not induce the air during mixing.

Another thought would to use a pump to circulate the mixture rather than using the mixer. I frequently have to pump large quantities of a liquid that foams up way too easily. We have found that we just never disturb the surface of the liquid. Pump and fill from the bottom and on foaming. If you were to have a pump with a flooded suction connected to your mixing "bowl", you could circulate the mixture as you add the Xanthum gum. As long as the pump does not suck any air, your mixture will blend, and be air free. As a bonus, you would be able to add a diverting valve you would be able to pump your mixture to the next location. Good luck.

Try making a paste from the gum, using a small amount of water.Then gradually add water to achieve the desired viscosity.Do not use a blender, as they are designed to introduce air into the mixture.Use a magnetic stirrer to incorporate more water, using a speed slow enough not to create an air induction vortex.Once this is thin enough,gradually add to the main mixture as required.If added too quickly, or if too thick when added,you may experience drop out when the product is stored, or on the store shelf.You may also use an eductor to inject the mix into the suction side of a recirculation pump,which pulls product form the bottom of the tank and returns it to the top side,preferrably above a mixing prop.

Good luck.

HiTek

I agree:

Move slower and longer.

X gum is very hard to work with if you want to avoid this problem. You might check with a company that produces thickeners for paints - some thickeners used in paint can be obtained as a food grade product. Hydrocellulose comes to mind. There is a short delay after mixing in water before it thickens. The initial mix is thin.

The only other way that comes to mind is to blend the X gum and water in a vacuum blender, which is neither cheap nor easy.

I should have said hydroxycellulose not hydrocellulose

microwave for 15 seconds

Hello Promethea2010

You mention a hand blender therefore I presume you wish a hand means of bubble extraction. Should this be so squeeze the mixture through a very woven fine cloth. Place mixture in middle of square cloth, gather the corners and start twisting downward. The air bubbles shall cling to the cloth syrup during passage through the cloth.