First time

[RTruter]

Hi,
I am busy with my first try brewing. The brew is busy fermenting for 4 days now. I couldnt get an airlock but used a baloon. When I mix the brew the baloon is upright but after a few hours the baloon is down. Is it a problem?

 

[LovesIPA]

Sounds like CO2 is escaping. When you agitate it, you knock dissolved CO2 out of solution so the balloon fills up. Then it slowly leaks out.

Get an airlock ASAP.

 

[KepowOb]

I'm kinda surprised the balloon stayed on. I picture it getting pretty full, then just flying across the room... considering you can get enough pressure in there to blow the lid off a sealed bucket and all.

 

[jro238]

If you have some extra plastic tubing around (I once used my auto-siphon in a pinch) then it would be pretty easy to rig a blow off tube. Just stick one end of the tube into the airlock hole in your fermenter and the other end into a gallon jug 2/3 full with water or sanitizer (make sure you sanitize the tube first).

Also just to clarify...are you mixing your fermenting beer around in the bucket? If so, why?

 

[Hello]

Yeah, get an airlock or a blow off tube. An airlock is under $5.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

OMG, this takes me back to my days as a mental health caseworker: when one of my clients found out I was a homebrewer, he excitedly showed me his "homebrew". He would mix table sugar, koolaid, and raw shredded potatoes (for "body") and ferment them in a glass carboy fitted with a latex glove as a airlock. He poked a hole in one of the fingers, so the glove would fill to a point, then extend the finger, allowing the co2 to escape from the hole and flop back down. Damn thing would sit there waving at you and give you the finger!

 

[Devilsnight]

bwahahahahaha... thanks for that

 

[Elysium]

Hi,
I am busy with my first try brewing. The brew is busy fermenting for 4 days now. I couldnt get an airlock but used a baloon. When I mix the brew the baloon is upright but after a few hours the baloon is down. Is it a problem?

One question, that has nothing to do with your original post,.....why are you mixing the batch? Why dont you just leave it there and let the yeast ferment?

 

[RTruter]

Well its the first time I have done this. Where live it is difficult to get anything. I had to malt barley from raw barley. I habe made gingerbeer before and it released a lot of co2. I think that a baloon with a small hole would stand up straight through the fermenting process. Now it doesnt so Im thinking that maybe there is not enough sugar so my malting process was not 100%.

 

[Elysium]

Well its the first time I have done this. Where live it is difficult to get anything. I had to malt barley from raw barley. I habe made gingerbeer before and it released a lot of co2. I think that a baloon with a small hole would stand up straight through the fermenting process. Now it doesnt so Im thinking that maybe there is not enough sugar so my malting process was not 100%.

It can be due to many different things. I think it would help a lot if you posted your method, technique, ingredients used in the brewing. Maybe not in this post....but in another post in which you could start troubleshooting your 1st batch for errors.

I am a newbie but I think it would be useful for you in the future.

 

[jro238]

Well its the first time I have done this. Where live it is difficult to get anything. I had to malt barley from raw barley. I habe made gingerbeer before and it released a lot of co2. I think that a baloon with a small hole would stand up straight through the fermenting process. Now it doesnt so Im thinking that maybe there is not enough sugar so my malting process was not 100%.

As a rule you can't judge fermentation by airlock activity much less by balloon activity. Moreover, most of your fermentation will finish in the first few days. If you can't get ahold of a hydrometer then you could make something that will work. I'm guessing you could use a drinking straw with weights (coins or something) attached to 1 end. Then figure out how high it floats in water, in your beer one day and how high it floats a few days later. This could give you a *very rough* idea of fermentation progress.

Precious poster gives good advice too--post your process in another thread for troubleshooting