Sealing Lid ?

[normell]

Hi Guys, I use a screw top fermenter, and am finding it hard to get the bloody thing to seal properly.
Put a new seal on for last brew, but still can't get a movement out of my airlock.
What do you PPL do, vasaline or just water.
Or do I need a new fermenter

 

[ghos]

Hi,
Don't worry about it. Some fermenters are poorly designed.
If you're getting a brown, cruddy foam on top of the wort then everything is going alright.

ghos.

 

[fergi]

hi normell
well i used to have a bit of trouble sealing my lids,and although i dont think this is a great problem i still prefer an air tight one,what i do is being a k& k person when i finish pouring my can of coopers etc into my fermenter there is always a bit of the malt left in the can so i just put the finger into the can and scrape out some of the malt and smear this on the rubber o ring then pour a little bit of boiled water onto the ring ,then i put the lid back on and with the extra lube it seals itself without grabbing the o ring and distorting it
cheers
fergi

 

[sosman]

I had that problem, until I realised I could turn the lid a fair bit more under a lot of pressure. Once I'd done that it all worked really well.

I nearly gave myself a hernia trying to get a lid off for a brew that I was determined to have no leaks.

Now I don't bother. Sometimes I do remember to put some food grade grease on the lip of the fermenter and this makes life easy.

 

[NRB]

I nearly gave myself a hernia trying to get a lid off for a brew that I was determined to have no leaks.

I forgot to mention the negative side to it

 

[jgriffin]

hi normell
well i used to have a bit of trouble sealing my lids,and although i dont think this is a great problem i still prefer an air tight one,what i do is being a k& k person when i finish pouring my can of coopers etc into my fermenter there is always a bit of the malt left in the can so i just put the finger into the can and scrape out some of the malt and smear this on the rubber o ring then pour a little bit of boiled water onto the ring ,then i put the lid back on and with the extra lube it seals itself without grabbing the o ring and distorting it
cheers
fergi

Sounds like a recipe for infection to me.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

If you have plenty of headroom in the fermenter you wont get much airlock activity, as long as you get some sort of krausen your beer should be safe.
Some brewers dont even use a sealed fermenter, just a sterilised towel over the top of the bucket.

 

[gybrid]

I found the best way to get a lock is to rinse the lid under hot water, put your airlock into the lid then screw the lid on the fermenter. When you hit the point where it starts to get tight, keep going about 3 cm around and it should be sweet. If you go further then that its a real pain to get it off again.

 

[Scotty]

Normell, i know exactly what you mean. I am assuming its a coopers fermenter and on one side there is a little gap. what i have done is got a clamp between the handle and the lid and tightend it and i gat a perfect seal. Then push the side of the fermenter and if the water in the airlock moves its a perfect seal if not check the whole seal to see any more gaps. Hope this helps,

Scotty

 

[iand]

Hi Guys, I use a screw top fermenter, and am finding it hard to get the bloody thing to seal properly.
Put a new seal on for last brew, but still can't get a movement out of my airlock.
What do you PPL do, vasaline or just water.
Or do I need a new fermenter

When I have this problem I use a piece 50x25 mm timber I'v cut to fit in between the notches of the lid. I tighnen and loosen the lid with this piece of timber while the tap is held against yhe body. make sure the seal has not become unglued at the join and the small seal for the air lock is ok


HOPES THIS HELPS