Goodbye to Suck Back

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demagxc

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While cold crashing a batch a few months ago I was having a lot of trouble with suck back. I know its not a big deal since I use a Star San solution in my airlocks, but its still annoying and unsettling for some reason. So I brewed my first lager this past weekend and have run into a bit of post brew boredom. Boredom usually ends in weird projects and in this case I decided to eliminate this suck back problem for good. This is what I came up with:

2012-07-30_19-35-52_735.jpg

I had a few things on hand so I think it cost me about $10. I tested it when topping off the airlock by pouring some of the Star San solution directly into the the tube in the middle and not a single drop landed in the carboy. It all made its way into the tubing on the side. Although not a necessary addition I think its pretty cool. :rockin:
 
Conceptually, the best solution is to have a mylar balloon attached to that tee. When active fermenting, it will inflate it with CO2, then when full it will outgas through the airlock. When you drop the temp to lager or cold crash, the vacuum created in the carboy will just pull in the CO2 and deflate the mylar bag. The last thing you want is fridge air being drawn in.
 
Conceptually, the best solution is to have a mylar balloon attached to that tee. When active fermenting, it will inflate it with CO2, then when full it will outgas through the airlock. When you drop the temp to lager or cold crash, the vacuum created in the carboy will just pull in the CO2 and deflate the mylar bag. The last thing you want is fridge air being drawn in.

Very interesting. Got a picture of that setup? I think i follow you but just to be safe...
 
I use chest freezers for fermenters and suck back isn't a problem for the CO2 concentration in both is high enough to extinguish a flame or suffocate a kitten. I forgot to remove the puke tube and bucket once and cold crashed. It sucked all the bucket runoff back in but the beer was fine. When you open the thing it instantly gives the whole house the aroma of a VFW the morning after a Polish wedding
 
Is suckback a technical term? :D I use vodka in my airlocks for just this reason.

love your ingenuity though.
 
I use the S style airlocks and have no problem with suck back. One piece, simple and cheap enough to throw away if they get questionable. I boil a few ounces of water in the microwave while I’m aerating and no worries. I like the KISS method when it comes to sanitation.
 
Conceptually, the best solution is to have a mylar balloon attached to that tee. When active fermenting, it will inflate it with CO2, then when full it will outgas through the airlock. When you drop the temp to lager or cold crash, the vacuum created in the carboy will just pull in the CO2 and deflate the mylar bag. The last thing you want is fridge air being drawn in.

If you're really uptight about this, why not take it a step further and put the balloon (or condom, for AnOldUR) on the top leg of the tee, and drop the tube on the bottom into several inches of StarSan. If you use a long cylinder, your could get close to 1 psi of CO2 pressure in your fermenter (need 15 inches for that, IIRC). You are not very likely to create a pressure drop then that is more that -2 psi, which would pull the StarSan up the tube and into the fermenter.

For my conicals, I have an elbow on the lid, and a 1/2 inch tube down to a small plastic bucket with StarSan. I didn't do this because I was worried about the "suck-back". I just don't have the head space in my fermentation fridges for an air lock. I usually only have enough StarSan in the buckets to make sure the hoses stay covered, perhaps 3 inches.
 
S type airlocks are about $1 around here, and do the same thing.

I have had suck back with S style airlocks. the starsan suds up with the incoming bubbles and it actuallly travels up the tube as a bubble. enough of these bubbles and a good portion of the liquid will end up in the carboy :mug:
 

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