Unusual fermentation advice

[S.E]

Glad wrap does not carry a high risk of infection. If you leave finished beer under glad wrap for an extended period (which would be silly) then yes you will expose the beer to oxygen and all its wonderful associated things but drop the bugbear against a method you have never used.

However I would agree with the rest of what you said for aging finished beer - times when I have made sour/funk beers or long term aging beers like dark strongs, I have racked the finished beer to a glass demijohn, topped up the headspace with boiled water and sealed to reduce the possiblity of oxidation. Two days into ferment seems a little odd though.

Glad wrap is a good idea to keep infection, oxygen and fly’s out of the fermenter. So is a lid and air lock. If you want to age beer it is sensible to reduce the air space and transfer to a glass demijohn.

But you are all wrong anyway, beer should be open fermented in the traditional manner and consumed as soon as possible. h34r:

 

[Camo6]

Since when is advising to 'top up your fermentor to the brim two days after the start of process so as to prevent it tasting like beer' good advice? If I filled up my fermentor to the brim and then screwed my lid on I can assure you it would overflow. That would be inviting infection. Yes, it's better to condition beer with minimal headspace but that's not what the OP's advice was referring to.
Yes. A plastic lid is less permeable than glad-wrap but there's a lot of brewers doing it and it works for them. As far as the reference to infection goes I think you'll find far more infections are a result of poor process, poor sanitation or just bad luck rather than bacteria or wild yeast permeating your gladwrap.

I can smell a troll but pretty sure it's not the OP.

 

[S.E]

I've brought my airlock back into active service after leaving a bear at 2'C for an extended period under gladwrap.

It's not that Gladwrap is the devil... it's rather I'm a lazy ******* at times and that batch ended up undrinkable.

I've brought my airlock back into active service after leaving a bear at 2'C for an extended period under gladwrap.

It's not that Gladwrap is the devil... it's rather I'm a lazy ******* at times and that batch ended up undrinkable.

So what happened to the bear, was it OK?

Sorry couldn’t resist.

 

[Camo6]

He became bi-polar.


:icon_vomit: (Sorry)

 

[Judanero]

:icon_offtopic: What is the ~ pore size of cling wrap? Ie- It allows oxygen to penetrate, but I would have thought that even a unicellular organism would have been significantly larger than a diatomic molecule? (+ N and all that other jazz)

Never had an infection in ~70 batches and used cling wrap in all but about 5 of those so not really that worried, just more as a point of interest really.

 

[manticle]

Most HB wort will likely carry some small level of micro-organisms other than brewer's yeast. These will be outcompeted while the brew is actively fermenting and the fermented wort is not a great place for many microorganisms to multiply and thrive. however exposure to oxygen can make conditions more friendly for some bugs, including acetobacter. Fruit flies can carry this bacteria and are attracted to things like beer. They can get inside multiple layers of plastic wrap (and also inside airlocks) so it is advisable not to leave beer in that environment for too long. Oxygen exposure has other downsides too but using plastic wrap for active fermentation simply isn't the skyfalling cataclysmic apocalyse catalyst Greg L suggests it will be.

 

[philmud]

Cling wrap is responsible for some terrible things, but it's clearly an effective fermentation tool.

 

[S.E]

I wasn’t joking about open fermenting, it carries a slight risk, but if you ferment in a closed fridge they are minimal. Using glad wrap or nothing at all over your fermenter won’t cause skyfalling cataclysmic apocalypse. Honest!!

 

[Martrix]

Cat be still!

 

[MastersBrewery]

S.E thanks mate, now you've reminded me I have a major clean of the ferm fridge to do before next brew day, cleaning like brewing never ends.

 

[Camo6]

Christ, kid, you're a weirdo.

 

[Camo6]

Christ, kid, you're a weirdo.

Not you MB!

 

[Beer Ninja]

Since when is advising to 'top up your fermentor to the brim two days after the start of process so as to prevent it tasting like beer' good advice? If I filled up my fermentor to the brim and then screwed my lid on I can assure you it would overflow. That would be inviting infection. Yes, it's better to condition beer with minimal headspace but that's not what the OP's advice was referring to.
Yes. A plastic lid is less permeable than glad-wrap but there's a lot of brewers doing it and it works for them. As far as the reference to infection goes I think you'll find far more infections are a result of poor process, poor sanitation or just bad luck rather than bacteria or wild yeast permeating your gladwrap.

I can smell a troll but pretty sure it's not the OP.
Thanks Camo6
One way or another I'll be getting back to you all on this one, hopefully with the shop owners reply and/or website link. I'm puzzled why a homebrew shop owner would want to' troll me' by email on a genuine query re content on their website. I don't live locally enough to buy from them but they don't know that so they could potentially be losing sales from me.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

My blow off tube doesn't make such a mess since I started using these and they're great for preventing infections as well.......

 

[MastersBrewery]

Not you MB!

family and friends would disagree with that sentiment

 

[mje1980]

It shows how twisted this forum is, when normal practice like keeping fermenters topped up is labelled "unusual fermentation advice". Gladwrap does encourage infection, anything that lets oxygen in encourages infection. I guess it's no mystery that so many people drop off this forum, and so many infection photos feature gladwrap. Most forums don't have an infection photo thread.

Yeah pure oxygen at the start of fermentation cause massive infections. You can tell by the huge krausen

 

[indica86]

Normal practice? WHEN has adding water during fermentation ever been normal?

 

[RelaxedBrewer]

This is terrible advice in my opinion.

1) Unless the water has been deoxygenated you are actually adding oxygen to the wort.
2) Opening the fermenter has its own risk of infection.
3) Pouring the water in could oxygenate with splashing.
4) The head space will contain CO2 not O2 at this point.

Reducing the risk of infection can not be the reason for topping the fermenter up.

Pretty sure the person giving the advice is having a weird joke.

 

[menoetes]

Man what a thread...

The circular arguing has been informative.

The Bad Boy Bubby references have been hilarious :lol:

 

[verysupple]

I agree with your general sentiment but your arguments are not very solid.

This is terrible advice in my opinion. This I agree with.

1) Unless the water has been deoxygenated you are actually adding oxygen to the wort. After 2 days the yeast are still very active so they will take up the oxygen introduced - no problem.
2) Opening the fermenter has its own risk of infection. Yes it does, but people seem to think the risk is worth it for things like dry hopping, so it's up to the brewer to decide if it's worth the risk.
3) Pouring the water in could oxygenate with splashing. See point 1.
4) The head space will contain CO2 not O2 at this point. The head space will contain some CO2 but there will still be O2 present. As the beer ferments and CO2 is produced it mixes with the air in the head space, it doesn't displace it.

Reducing the risk of infection can not be the reason for topping the fermenter up.

Pretty sure the person giving the advice is having a weird joke.

As I said, though, I still think it's impractical advice.

However there are situations where it might be useful. If you brew over gravity and then dilute it a bit you can increase the volume of beer you can make in a certain size fermentation vessel. I'm sure I've read about big commercial breweries doing this to increase production capacity without increasing the real estate needed. Although there are a lot of myths about what megaswill breweries do so take it with a grain of salt.