Brewing Solvent

I'd say that's one possibility. There are many others. You don't say whether you sanitised anything. More than washing is required. Everything needs to be sterile.

On the subject of airlocks I suggest throwing it away. They are more trouble than they are worth. Just cover the fermenter with some plastic wrap. Works perfectly. I've been doing it for years without a single failure.

Have a look at these;

Shill #312

-- Homer no function beer well without. Homer J. Simpson

I don't think it was your arm. I had the same thin happen once when making an Irish Red. It turned out to be one of the best beers I've ever made.

I doubt it was your arm. What temp are you fermenting it at?

------------>Denny

-- Life begins at 60...1.060, that is.

65 would be good. 75 is too warm, IMO, and could be the cause of the flavors you're experiencing.

---------->Denny

-- Life begins at 60...1.060, that is.

That's cool! Where does the CO2 escape if there is no airlock?

I used to put a pin hole in the centre of the plastic, but I don't bother anymore. It just escapes gently from under the edge of the sheet when the pressure is positive inside. As the pressure dies down the rubber ring stops baddies getting in. To know when it's finished you just look inside. when the beer starts to clear, it's time to put it into a keg.

Cheers,

Shill #312

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24 beers in a carton. 24 hours in a day. Hmmmm.......

Very interesting! I like the idea! I think it will save some work! I've got a plastic fermenter (like a bucket) with a lid, grommet and airlock. Seems like too many pieces for me to touch and get contaminated! Do you just use something like Saran Wrap? How about the band, is it tight or just semi tight? I'm guessing that way the plastic wrap would drap over the sides, the folds would allow gas to escape, huh?

Exactly. I no longer have to sterilize a lid and an airlock each time I brew. K.I.S.S.

If Saran Wrap is like Glad Wrap, then yeah.

The band is the rubber O ring that used to seal the screw on lid. You can just see one inside this lid

This is how that lid fits

So the band (O ring) is just a little bit smaller than the circumference of the top of the fermenter (it is designed to sit on top if the lip - I'm putting it around the outside of the lip). It is snug. Semi tight.

Folds? I don't understand. There are no folds. But the O ring isn't too tight and whatever pressure builds up inside just sneaks past.

In this picture;

you can see how much the wrap deflects up under max pressure. Not much really.

And this one;

shows what happens when the beer is drained into the keg and I haven't made a hole with my finger (which I normally do). You can see that the seal is quite good (otherwise the wrap wouldn't get sucked down so far).

Try it out. I'll never go back to the other way. Airlock? Schmarlock!

Shill #312

-- Homer no function beer well without. Homer J. Simpson

I will! My bucket is like this:

But it also has a rubber gasket in the lid, not as large as yours, but I think it will work! I like the idea because my lid is not transparent and I can't see what's going on. Now, what I have is a primary that does not have a spigot. Then a bottling bucket that is the exact same, only with a hole and a spigot. I'm thinking of making that my primary so that I don't have to siphon. Good, bad??

Sounds like a good idea. Draining out of a spigot would have to be easier than siphoning. How will you bottle? Straight out of the primary? I don't bottle. Mine goes straight into a keg. Only one thing to wash instead of 30. No priming.

Shill #312

--

24 beers in a carton. 24 hours in a day. Hmmmm.......

I eventually put spigot holes in all my 6 - 7 gallon buckets. It does make things a bit easier. However, there are issues with it too: * plastic spigots can leak or crack or get knocked (and break). It's a pain to have 5 gallons of beer fermenting and have a fairly constant drip from around the spigot... One of mine leaks pretty badly. For bottling, it's not an issue, but sitting for weeks fermenting it bothers me more. * I feel like I need to take steps to clean/sanitize them after they've been siting during the ferment. I was once sampling a wine from a primary bucket fermenter's spigot and thought the wine had turned to vinegar. Turns out the wine was OK, but residual wine in the spigot had turned to vinegar and tainted my samples. (I don't do that anymore). Some folks "fix" this by having a bit of tubing sealed at one end that they sanitize and stick over the spigot during fermenting. One of these days ... * I bought some from different sources and they are slightly different sizes (so I have one bucket that will only accept one certain spigot - the shank on the others is slightly too big). I also am not sure they'd seal well if their parts were interchanged.

So, go ahead if you want to ... I feel it is worth it. However, you should probably buy a spare or two and mark them all separately.

Derric

I figure I'll go from the secondary back into the bottling bucket. Do you use corny kegs? That is my next step is to get set up that way! Trouble is, I still want some bottles of each, and I brew five gallons at a time, so that's a full corny! Any advice is welcome!!

You may have trouble finding a roll of Glad or Saran wrap wide enough for your primary......note that Phil's appears to be significantly smaller in diameter than a standard 5 gallon pickle bucket (which is basically what you have). Before you pull your lid's O ring I'd make sure you can get a roll wide enough to overlap with enough plastic left over for the ring to catch.

A.A.

Ok. I don't bother with secondary fermentation. Straight out of the primary into the keg. Not looking at it, drinking it.

Yep. Got sick of washing bottles. Here's the fridge;

Going to get a through door tap one of these days. Just have the gun type handle at the moment. The bathroom scale is so I know how much beer is left inside the keg. The fridge will take 3 kegs at a squeeze.

My fermenter will take 30 litres (8 gallons) and the kits I use are for making

22.5 litre (6 gallon) batches. The first couple of kits I did for the kegs I did the full 22.5 litres and put the excess (the keg takes 19 litres (5 gallons)) 3.5 litres into 1/2 a dozen screw top plastic bottles. Now I only fill the fermenter up to the 19 litre mark, and it all goes into the keg. Is there some way you could adjust your brews up to 6 gallons (or whatever)? Are you using kits, or are you more adventurous than that?

Shill #312

-- To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. Homer J. Simpson

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing, except that I have a friend who works for Publix, and I'm hoping he can get those wide rolls that they use in the meat and deli departments! Also, I'm a little worried about using my bottling bucket as a primary. I like the idea of having a spigot so I don't have to siphon, but what about nasties getting into the spigot while I'm on primary fermentation? Thanks for you input!

Phil, I'm not using kits per se, but I am using extract recipes for the time being. I suppose I could adjust! I mean, there's never too much beer! So, where did you learn about the hardware you need to corny keg? I'm going to talk to the guys at my local homebrew place. I seen some not too expensive cornies on ebay. Are the pepsi type or the coke type more common? Do you add priming sugar to keg or use the CO2?

I often primary in a bucket with a spigot... while getting ready to transfer or bottle, I set the bucket up on the sink and rinse the spigot and then let some sanitizer sit in it (upside down) while I do other things... then rinse again. I've had no problems with that procedure.

Note that I've seen posts where some folks have a short piece of tubing that is closed on one end somehow (heat, glue, ?) and they sanitize that and stick it over the sipgot during fermentation.

My main problem with spigots and fermentation is they they often have slow leaks/drips, etc. Not a big problem, but annoying and messy.

Just a couple thoughts.

Derric