Butters My Airlock Isn't Working? What Can I Do?

[chappo1970]

Kill me. Kill me now. Please.
Airlocks were invented by Adolf Hitler, in association with Joseph Stalin, just to confuse new brewers, and bring scorched earth poloicy to fruition.....
A more accurate determination of fermentation can be made by reading tea leaves.

sorry for the sarcasm, but really, the airlock thing comes up about every 2 or 3 days. After a couple of years of the same question every few days, you would get a bit shirty as well........

The coopers lager kit (the regular lager, not the Euro) is supplied with an ale yeast, exactly as me old china Gavo says. Follow his advice, it's valid.

I seem to remember something like this kinda rant last week too...

Anyway just to help our mate Butters vent some more please ask all the silly questions of butters here. I am sure he will answer them!

To kick things off:
Butters? Why does my beer taste fruity? I have brewed it in the normal way, kilo of white table sugar and the kit yeast dated best before 4/4/04 Oh! and fermented at nice stable 32 degs?

You are a legend Butters... I just love your work! :lol:

 

[zebba]

Sounds to me like you've thrown in too much yeast. Thing is, those little buggers get freaky together at any opportunity. Sitting in your cupboard for 5+ years, they've had a lot of time for "self love", so they've probably multiplied something like 1000x since they were first pakaged.

I'd chuck a small amount of sanitizer into the fermenter - enough to kill, say, 50% of the yeast. To calculate how much sanitizer you will need, you just calculate the size of your wort divided by the size of your fermenter, divided by two. This is the percentage of sanitiser that you should use, compared to what you would use for full sanitization.

So, 30L fermenter, 23L of wort, you get (23/30)/2 = 38%. So, if you use 4 TBS of sanitizer for your original clean, you will need to use 1.5 TBS of sanitizer to kill half the yeast.

Happy hunting!

 

[Mantis]

Ditch the table sugar and use castor sugar instead. Its finer and ferments quicker. That should get your airlock bubbling big time :lol:

 

[chappo1970]

What if I tried icing sugar? Would that help with a full fermentation?

Cheers Zebba for the advice so in other words maybe I souldn't use lemon scented dishwashing liquid and metho to sanitize?

 

[muckey]

Sounds to me like you've thrown in too much yeast. Thing is, those little buggers get freaky together at any opportunity. Sitting in your cupboard for 5+ years, they've had a lot of time for "self love", so they've probably multiplied something like 1000x since they were first pakaged.

I'd chuck a small amount of sanitizer into the fermenter - enough to kill, say, 50% of the yeast. To calculate how much sanitizer you will need, you just calculate the size of your wort divided by the size of your fermenter, divided by two. This is the percentage of sanitiser that you should use, compared to what you would use for full sanitization.

So, 30L fermenter, 23L of wort, you get (23/30)/2 = 38%. So, if you use 4 TBS of sanitizer for your original clean, you will need to use 1.5 TBS of sanitizer to kill half the yeast.

Happy hunting!

that would work because you kill all the ones that are slow and worn out from luvvin each other leaving all the healthy yeasties to do the work.
Alternatively if you are a tighta**e like butters, you'll get a fresh tin of farmland larger and a bag if castor sugar and get a new brew in a second fermenter. If you leave the 2 fermenters with their lids off the extra unwanted yeasties will hop out of the overpitched 1 and get cracking on the new brew - 2 for the price of 1 and no need to use any expensive sanitiser!

 

[Mantis]

Icing sugar is a great idea. I reckon it would help with head retention

 

[muckey]

What if I tried icing sugar? Would that help with a full fermentation?

Cheers Zebba for the advice so in other words maybe I souldn't use lemon scented dishwashing liquid and metho to sanitize?

you could if you are brewing coronas

 

[robbo5253]

Butters

Looking at doing a Newcastle Brown ale clone, does this mean i use 1kg ofBrown Sugar?

Thanks in advance

Robbo

 

[WarmBeer]

Oh! and fermented at nice stable 32 degs?

Remember your laws of thermodynamics, kids, increase the temperature of the surrounding environment, increase the speed of your ferment.

So, I heartily recommend a nice, constant 64 deg Celcius for your fermenter.

 

[muckey]

Remember your laws of thermodynamics, kids, increase the temperature of the surrounding environment, increase the speed of your ferment.

So, I heartily recommend a nice, constant 64 deg Celcius for your fermenter.

Are you saying I should put a gas burner under my fermenter to speed up fermentation?

 

[zebba]

Cheers Zebba for the advice so in other words maybe I souldn't use lemon scented dishwashing liquid and metho to sanitize?

Funny you ask that. I actually do special brews following the instructions on the kit to the letter. I* then use the results to clean the tiles in my shower. Metho should not be underestimated as a cleaner.

* Not entirely true. I then give the results to my wife so she can use them to clean the shower.

 

[brettprevans]

butters im trying to watch my wieght can I substitute Equal or some other diarty non-sugar instead of table sugar?

lmao. actualy i wonder now that ive said it :huh:

EDIT: actually that may be how they make pure blonde!!

 

[atkinsonr]

Butters,
I've made a Coopers Lager kit at 65 degrees and now I'm ready to bottle.
I want to make a Belgian Double. Is 1KG of dex enough to prime my bottles for secondary fermentation?

 

[chappo1970]

Butters

Looking at doing a Newcastle Brown ale clone, does this mean i use 1kg ofBrown Sugar?

Thanks in advance

Robbo

I am also interested in making a Newcastle Ale.

Butters As I can't be bothered to go to the LHBS and alway get my brewing stuff from the supermarket, BTW they have the best gear, can I use say HOME BRAND 250gr Icing sugar, 250gr Table Sugar and 500gr Brown sugar to get the same results?

 

[jonocarroll]

actually that may be how they make pure blonde!!

Not really, low carb beers are made with special enzymes that break down more sugars than usual and ferment further. On that topic though, sweeteners are used in most ginger beer kits.

 

[WarmBeer]

Butters,
I've made a Coopers Lager kit at 65 degrees and now I'm ready to bottle.
I want to make a Belgian Double. Is 1KG of dex enough to prime my bottles for secondary fermentation?

Note the beer is called a DOUBLE. So, you will need to DOUBLE the amount of priming sugar. 2 kgs will be sufficient

 

[zebba]

Note the beer is called a DOUBLE. So, you will need to DOUBLE the amount of priming sugar. 2 kgs will be sufficient

I thought it was for double alcohol AND double the bubbles, meaning you should quadruple the sugar. I'd go with 4kgs - better to go over then to go under and have your mates accuse you of feeding them lolly water.

 

[chappo1970]

Note the beer is called a DOUBLE. So, you will need to DOUBLE the amount of priming sugar. 2 kgs will be sufficient

In each bottle? Or should I just whack ALL into the fermentor now, shake the sh#t our of it cocktail style and wait a day or two and then bottle?

 

[unterberg]

What if I tried icing sugar? Would that help with a full fermentation?

Cheers Zebba for the advice so in other words maybe I souldn't use lemon scented dishwashing liquid and metho to sanitize?

Icing sugor will wurk just fine - remember - the finer the sugor the quickur the yeasties can incopulate them. I have heard that yeasties are a type of amoebe? Thats true Butters, isnt it?

Note the beer is called a DOUBLE. So, you will need to DOUBLE the amount of priming sugar. 2 kgs will be sufficient

That must be wrong! DOUBLE just means you have to add DOUBLE the amount of belgian shepherd to your wort for aroma. I guess 10 mins to the end of the brew should be fine, but make sure they got enough space to paddle!

 

[atkinsonr]

I thought it was for double alcohol AND double the bubbles, meaning you should quadruple the sugar. I'd go with 4kgs - better to go over then to go under and have your mates accuse you of feeding them lolly water.

Yep sounds good. Wouldn't want my mates to come round and call my beer piss weak.

So with that much sugar I guess I should add more yeast. Is it OK if I just tip some from the fermenter into the bottles before I cap them?

Thanks a lot!