Why such complex airlocks?
Why such complex airlocks?
The main issues are twofold, having enough space for a vigorous fermentation and ingress of contamination.
I don’t use airlocks. I do my primary fermentation in a 40L loose fitting screwcap lid (originally Calcium Hypochlorite for pool HDPE container), once this has calmed down (SG about 1.012) it goes into a 20L vessel with a rubber glove with a pin prick 10 days in there finishes it off and clarifies (see photo of trial of 10L of extract).
Finally into Corny for conditioning prior to drinking. Careful siphoning and liberal use of CO2 minimises oxidation during transfers.
both jars get filled with co2 and when you drop temps it pulls the co2 back to the fermenter and sanitizer gets pulled from one jar to another but no liquid makes it up the blow off tubeI don't know why there would be, but it looks like there IS, liquid in the airlock. Is that the case?
But my main question is: How/why does this work to prevent suck back? I'm intrigued...
The wood board has a space hear pad adhered to it so i can remove as needed, the carboy in the crate makes it easier to pick up and the rags are covering the insulation for the controller probe.A vendor here sells one of those setups.
Curious why you have wood separating the chest freezer?
Why the carboy in a milk crate with rags?
probably, but this should definitely reduce o2 exposureI thought I read somewhere on here that the volume of air that gets sucked back is a lot more than the volume of the mason jars.
Thats exactly what this set up isUse just two mason jars with one filled halfway with sanitizer and works fine
I used to do that with the foil, this is not alot of work 2 holes in each jar with some tubing..i prefer to have little to no air getting in my fermenter so i go the extra mile to decrease itLooks like a lot of work to avoid using a $2 airlock.
If you really want to go simple, put a tinfoil cover over the mouth, held in place with a rubber band. Gas can escape and take air with it. Germs won't go in.
I thought I read somewhere on here that the volume of air that gets sucked back is a lot more than the volume of the mason jars.
I did the math on it, and as I recall, the amount of headspace shrinkage, assuming 1.5 gallons of headspace, was something on the order of .44 quarts. I have seen it suck back almost an entire quart, though.
My problem with this is I can't get it to work all the time. There appears to be a slight leak in the lid gasket or some other place such that the slight pressure to pull back the sanitizer into the first jar is just enough to be made up by the leak.
My main goal with this contraption was to prevent o2 from getting in the fermenter during cold crashing, not worried about a blow off, either way it failed at keeping o2 out of the fermenterDitch the carboy and get a bucket and never worry about a blow off...Sometimes contraptions are just contraptions...good experiment though
Well, after trying this contraption with the jars i came to the conclusion that its does not allow any liquid to be sucked back but air still gets in the fermenter so i might have me some oxidized beer as a result...the balloon might be the best option or lowering temps alot slower
I should test that out once I get my cooling setup running. Would be a really easy experiment.If everything is tightly connected, I'm gonna go with "Yes"...
Cheers!
All the liquid got pulled out of A, filled up B, pushed over to C pretty much filling it, leaving A and B dry but continued pulling air in bubbling up in jar C and finally into the headspace of the fermenter
yeah, one good thing about this jar setup is it does not allow any liquid to get pulled into the fermenter, if i did not have these jars i would have pulled a half gallon of star san into the fermenter hahaThat’s some serious suck back
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