Anyone using Better Bottle "Dry trap" airlocks for long-term aging?

[ipsiad]

For lambics and other sour beers that should sit undisturbed in the fermenter for a year or longer, it would be great if I could stick the carboy in a dark inaccessible corner of my storage room, set a calendar reminder for sometime in the distant future, and then literally just forget about it. The only thing preventing me from doing that is the fact that I need to keep checking on and refilling the airlock.

I use Better Bottles exclusively and I've been eyeing their "Dry Trap" airlocks for a long time to use specifically for long-term aging of sours. I never pulled the trigger because a) they're hideously expensive and b) I'm not sure how effective they actually are for keeping out oxygen. I'd hate to spend over $30 for a special bung+airlock only to find out a year later that my beautifully crafted lambic is now 5 gallons of vinegar.

But, if they actually work then maybe I could justify the steep price. So... has anyone tried using these things for long-term aging?

 

[WI_Wino]

I have not used that product specifically but I have used this airless silicon "airlock" with carboys of wine for ~ a year to no ill effects:

http://www.ritebrew.com/product-p/841374.htm

 

[Gus_13]

I've heard they can be the best. But I've also never seen them below $50ish. Where are you seeing the total package for $30? I'd probably buy that. Usually that's just one of the pieces and not the whole system.

 

[ipsiad]

Label Peelers has them on sale right now - $17.40 for the PET closure and $13.46 for the Dry Trap. So about $31 plus shipping. Definitely the cheapest that I've seen them.

http://labelpeelers.com/universal-pet-closure-for-better-bottle-bb-clz-pet-04/
http://labelpeelers.com/better-bottle-dry-trap-fermentation-lock/

 

[Gus_13]

Label Peelers has them on sale right now - $17.40 for the PET closure and $13.46 for the Dry Trap. So about $31 plus shipping. Definitely the cheapest that I've seen them.

http://labelpeelers.com/universal-pet-closure-for-better-bottle-bb-clz-pet-04/
http://labelpeelers.com/better-bottle-dry-trap-fermentation-lock/

Not bad at all really. I'd like to give some a try for sure. I may pick up a couple.

 

[dantheman13]

They work. When I open a fermenter, I hear the vacuum being filled. So far, my beers haven't had nail polish despite my 10° daily temp shifts in the summer.

 

[ipsiad]

Good to hear. I'm going to give them a shot.

Found these oxygen transfer tests on the Better Bottle website. While the source is obviously biased, I'm impressed that they actually took the time to perform these kinds of tests, and were able to measure oxygen transfer so precisely. According to them, the Better Bottle PET closure and Dry Trap airlock was comparable to or slightly better than a standard rubber stopper and 3-piece airlock in terms of oxygen transfer.

http://www.better-bottle.com/pdf/CarboyPermeabilityStudy.pdf
http://www.better-bottle.com/pdf/ClosuresOxygenPassageStudy.pdf

Interestingly, if you add up the O2 transfer rate for the BB itself plus the stopper and airlock, both closure types (PET closure + Dry Trap or rubber stopper + 3-piece) get you pretty darn close to the O2 transfer rate of an oak wine barrel, according to this paper:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf502333d