Airlock vacuum....

Brewsser · Oct 4, 2012

I'm about 5 days into fermentation on my cider and I noticed the water in my 3 piece airlock starting to get close to flowing backwards. 1 gal carboy, 3 cups sugar, 1/5 vial english labs cider yeast, 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient. It gets a little cold at night, maybe 62-64. When I noticed this it was about 68 in my house. Any ideas what could be causing this?

smegger · Oct 4, 2012

A couple of people have reported temperature changes as being repsonsible. Apparently before the yeast really get started producing co2 the cooler temperatures can change the pressure in the fermentation vessel or something.

Brewsser · Oct 5, 2012

smegger said:
A couple of people have reported temperature changes as being repsonsible. Apparently before the yeast really get started producing co2 the cooler temperatures can change the pressure in the fermentation vessel or something.

Yeah. I've read the same thing. It wasn't really that cold when I noticed it but that was my first thought. Time to break out the little heater I guess. According to my yeast I should be okay at 68-75.

gratus fermentatio · Oct 8, 2012

Yep, it's a combination of temprature & barometric pressure changes. You can solve the problem by switching to an S shaped airlock.
Regards, GF.

Misplaced_Canuck · Oct 8, 2012

Fill it like this and it won't suck back any liquid: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/back-basics-filling-3-piece-airlock-282104/

MC

Brewsser · Oct 10, 2012

It's odd that my airlock started doing this. I have it stored in the same place as another carboy that's still bubbling. It doesn't get cold there. The only difference is the one that's trying flow backwards is about 2 weeks old and is no longer bubbling & has started to settle/clear on its own. Will probably rack soon.

Brewsser · Oct 10, 2012

Airlock vacuum....

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