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Sunday, October 5, 2008

Interesting Phenomenon



I bought a bottle of red burčák last week from a roadside stand.

Burčák is the young, partially fermented wine that the Czechs love to drink at this time of the year. It can be quite good, almost like alcoholic apple cider. It goes down quickly and can catch up with you, since it has an alcohol content of around 5% to 8%.

Anyway, I drank about two-thirds of the 2-liter bottle. When I came back to the bottle, the foam on the top of the burčák had taken the shape of the indentations on the bottom of the bottle.

When I shook it up a bit to destroy the flowerlike pattern, it reappeared a short time later.

Anyone know how or why this happens?

2 comments:

  1. Grant,

    It could be that through the fermentation (which what burcak is constantly doing before it turns to wine) the yeast will floculate out (fall) to the bottom of the bottle. It may be the indents have a greater concentration of nutrients or yeast and they are forming the C02 at a greater concentration which is producing the bubbles at the top of the liquid (bubbles float more or less straight up)

    Keep up the good work on both of your blogs! I am jealous, I am not in the CZ anymore and I really enjoy your posts and pictures!

    Jake

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  2. Hey, Jake! Thanks for the info. Very interesting! Sounds like a reasonable theory to me. And thanks for the kind words about the blogs. I really appreciate it. All the best to you!

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