Sealing a Fermenter

I will share this. In a book I read that a good method to seal a Fermentor and allow for fermentation is to use Cling Wrap with an elasic band. Seals perfectly. To allow the Co2 to escape use a pin hole.

I would like comments on this

There's a lot of "interesting" information out there....

But, I think I'll stick to my bucket lids and carboy stoppers.....

thanks anyway....

I would imagine it can work ok but there are a couple potential downsides... If something falls on your pail, it's likely going into your beer. If you have a robust fermentation and your pin hole can't pass a sufficient amount of CO2, it's likely to tear the cling wrap or just blow off.

I have a couple of cats - they tend to jump on top of my fermenter from time to time. I like using an air lock.

What! And miss the enjoyment of watching the airlock bubbling?
It's very therapeutic.

Terry08 said:

I will share this. In a book I read that a good method to seal a Fermentor and allow for fermentation is to use Cling Wrap with an elasic band. Seals perfectly. To allow the Co2 to escape use a pin hole.

I would like comments on this

Click to expand...

I have done this with carboys when I got frustrated with the rubber stoppers constantly coming dislodged. I don't pop a hole in the cling wrap though, the CO2 escapes just fine past the seal (for which I usually use pony tail holders) if it's not too tight.

It works, but I prefer carboy caps with airlocks.

Actually I have been seriously thinking of it as for one thing the cling wrap we use will not tear but will stretch. By using an elasic band the seal is as good as a rubber seal clamped by a screw lid plus the Hydrometer can be left in the beer and viewed through the top (We do not use glass Carboys). The Co2 being heavier sits on top.

The reason I am interested is that my grommet in the lid of my Fermentor has a lead going to a Fish heater through it and it is not sealed, the Co2 escapes past the lead. I have always used it this way and other than an old blanket I place over the lot for temperature stability, I rely on the blanket of Co2 to prevent contamination. I have a 100% success rate for over 500 brews. maybe our bugs in the Sydney area are less destructive happy bugs.

I do believe in strict steralization of equipment and after seeing some of our wine producers ferment wine, airial contamination does not seem a biggy.

To prevent "Cats, Mice, Possums or Drop Bears from damaging the seal I could always place a board over the top.

The biggest improvement I have made is adopting the use of a secondary clearing container. At this stage I will stick with priming each bottle that has worked every time with perfect success. The beauty of that is that I can stop anytime. Not so if I bulked primed, I would have to complete bottling in one go.

I accept the auguments but I have decided to keep to a system that has proved 100% successful. I will say that I hve had two bottles that exploded in my shed 2 out of 15,000 + bottles. I admit nothings perfect, there is a risk like eating blow fish.

I generally just put some tin foil over the top. I worked in a lab for a while and that was what we used on various flasks after running them through the autoclave. If it's good enough for a lab, it's good enough for me (although I do put a stopper on for extended aging).