No Airlocks For 12 Months

[TidalPete]

Ive thought about doing this and like the idea of not having any pressure on the yeast, even thou it is small. But I have seen small black flies hanging around gaps in my air lock seal where the co2 is escaping, it is like the flies are attracted to the co2. Does anyone worry about them getting into the fermenter?

No mate, they won't drink much. :lol:
Are you talking about Belgians etc that you let ferment outside your fermenting fridge Jye?

:beer:

 

[tangent]

jye - a winemaker told me they don't like the CO2 but will endure it if they can get a whiff of alcohol. yes those little black bastards are a pain in the arse.
one of those gets in and you've got 40L of salad dressing

 

[Steve Lacey]

At Brewery Tomigaya we recently switched from fermenting in a scratchy old plastic fermenter to fermenting in our 27-L stainless steel stockpot which also doubles as the mashtun -- gives a good incentive for Assistant Brewer Bryan to get the spent grain cleaned out the same day instead of letting it stew for a few days as he has been known to do

We just drape a dry or iodophor-soaked towel over the pot and sit the lid on top of that. Works great. I am also planning to start using plastic jerry cans for fermenting and storing finished beer.

 

[PostModern]

At Brewery Tomigaya

Your brewery mat has the same print as my hall runner!

I still use airlocks. My fermentation freezer has seen the odd wort spillage and it smells a lot like vinegar, despite my quarterly cleanings with PSR. The beers all come out nice and clean tho. I fear that any opening could lead to one acetobacter sneaking on in. Not that my fermenters seal perfectly or anything.

 

[Jye]

No mate, they won't drink much. :lol:
Are you talking about Belgians etc that you let ferment outside your fermenting fridge Jye?

:beer:

The seal on my fridge isnt perfect and the little bastards can still get in... I dont mind if they drink from a glass, just not the fermenter

 

[fifteenbeerslater]

WARDHOG:
Decant is simple with a siphon hose. I used to clean with napisan or similar but now make up a caustic solution, one litre of LUKE warm water and one or two heaped teaspoons of caustic, screw lid on TIGHT and shake well, most times fermenter is clean in one or two minutes- wear eye protection.

FENTS:
The lid is just open. To give you an idea of how much would be to quarter fill fermenter with water, turn upside and loosen the lid so the water just slowly drips out, thats all just so the co2 can escape.

 

[Enerjex]

Thought i'd jump onto the end of this thread instead of starting a new one, but just have a question about the gladwrap method. If you put it over the top of the fermenter and use the lid seal to hold it on like a big rubber band I assume, then where does the CO2 escape? Wouldn't the gladwrap start blowing up like a balloon? Also is there any problems with using gladwrap and the yeast become light struck?