Can I just loosely put the lid on this fermentor and use no valve at all?

I have just bought this nice 6 gallon fermentor in Spain.

The top of it has 2 parts....a blue part that kinda clicks on to the neck of the fermentor and then this black screw-on part that kinda makes sure it wont come off.

I really dont wanna cut a hole on that blue plastic because it is some kind of fine (and soft) plastic.

Can I just loosely screw the black part on and maybe wrap the top of the fermentor in aluminium foil and just ferment it like that with success?

Any thoughts on this?


UPDATE: A friend eventually cut a hole on it.....a slightly loose one, meaning that it sits in the whole firmly, but you need really little force to pull it out....so the Co2 will probably just come through that hole (By now there should be activity in the valve). I am wondering if that's okay...
By the way...krausen never reaches the valve..so that's not an issue.

Yes you can, no problem with that plan. Once fermentation subsides (the krausen falls) loosely tighten the lid so air can still escape....the headspace of the vessel stays filled with CO2.

Could be messy during initial fermentation if a batch goes nuts. but otherwise it's fine.

helibrewer said:

Yes you can, no problem with that plan. Once fermentation subsides (the krausen falls) loosely tighten the lid so air can still escape....the headspace of the vessel stays filled with CO2.

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Thanks for the reply....do you think the aluminium foil is an overkill though?

I don't think you need the foil,just don't tighten the black sealing ring too much. Nasties & wild yeasts aren't ninja acrobats,they more or less float straight down. Unless you have a fan blowing,window open,etc.

Should work either way.

unionrdr said:

Nasties & wild yeasts aren't ninja acrobats,they more or less float straight down. Unless you have a fan blowing,window open,etc.

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Or you have kids or pets, or you walk by, or you open a door, or . . . .

Most of the time you'd be fine, but you have to ask yourself, "How lucky do you feel?"

Personally, I'd drill a hole and use a grommet and an airlock.

As long as you have outgassing of CO2 you shouldn't have to worry about anything getting in. After fermentation subsides tighten the black sealing ring a bit (not all the way). Check occasionally to see how much pressure has built up and relieve as needed.

Well,as far as that goes,our kids are grown,the dog can't get near them & the cat doesn't care for the smell. Lil bastard. My other cat's liked beer,or wouldn't eat their food without ketchup! A cat that doesn't like the fishy smell...WTF? But the front door is right by the man cave,& I haven't got the French doors put up yet. But to be precise,I prefer all my fermenters to have sealed lids with three piece airlocks.

Its minimal effort to add an airlock so personally I would add one. Both a lose lid and an airlock will work, I think in reality it would provide very little extra assurance from contamination.

Queequeg said:

Its minimal effort to add an airlock so personally I would add one. Both a lose lid and an airlock will work, I think in reality it would provide very little extra assurance from contamination.

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Thanks for the reply.

You mean the valve would provide very little extra assurance from contamination?

You'll be fine. Just lay it on top loosely. You can place some foil over the top if you want. I know guys who do their fermentations without airlocks and simply place sanitized foil over the top of their fermenters.

It will be fine. A lot of breweries do open fermentation.

[ame="http://youtu.be/xClXKMhcFr0"]http://youtu.be/xClXKMhcFr0[/ame]

beernut70 said:

It will be fine. A lot of breweries do open fermentation.

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In a cleanroom . . . or close to it.

beernut70 said:

It will be fine. A lot of breweries do open fermentation.

http://youtu.be/xClXKMhcFr0

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You are totally right, but my closet is surely not as clean as that fermentation room.

Pretty sure the guys on brewing tv have done open fermentation in their basement and all was fine. In Belgium they leave the windows open to let the yeast blow in. Check out Cantillon brewery. The cap will help it's not open.

beernut70 said:

In Belgium they leave the windows open to let the yeast blow in. Check out Cantillon brewery.

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Cantillon ". . . a family brewery where LAMBIC, GUEUZE, FARO and KRIEK are made . . . "

Loose cap instead of an airlock isn't earth shattering. Point is leave the cap loose relax and have a homebrew it will be fine. Google coolship if your interested in truly open fermentation. I am not that paranoid and plan on doing an open fermentation of my Troegs Dreamweaver clone this spring.

How about do away with the cap altogether and use some plastic food wrap secured with a rubber band? Will seal it decently while still allowing CO2 to escape.

I think it would be easy enough to make a new "blue part" sized disk with an airlock hole in it. May want to add a gasket around the perimeter, but with the black part holding it down tight enough I wouldn't worry about it. I assume that the black part is like the outer ring on a mason jar?

Neither of the vessels I use for primary fermentation use an airlock.

For beer I use the Cooper's DIY fermenter.

For wine I use this: http://www.clickabrew.com/shopexd.asp?id=616 You can add an airlock if you want but you don't have to.

For apfelwein I use a one gallon glass jug sealed with shrink wrap and an elastic band.

I've never had a problem but since last summer (maybe spring) all my fermentation takes place in a temperature controlled chest freezer so I don't have to worry about breezes or children (don't have any pets).

I think you'll be fine without an airlock but it's a simple install so do what makes you comfortable.

beernut70 said:

Pretty sure the guys on brewing tv have done open fermentation in their basement and all was fine. In Belgium they leave the windows open to let the yeast blow in. Check out Cantillon brewery. The cap will help it's not open.

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Well, in some Belgian beer what is desired........is a flaw in american pale ale and that's what I brew. So....I wanna keep wild yeast and other things away from the wort for sure.

Elysium said:

Well, in some Belgian beer what is desired........is a flaw in american pale ale and that's what I brew. So....I wanna keep wild yeast and other things away from the wort for sure.

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If you pitch viable yeast and use the loose cap you should be pushing CO2 out of the container and nothing should be able to get in. You could also cut disk out of a bucket lid the same size as the blue part drill it an use an airlock.

Elysium said:

Thanks for the reply.

You mean the valve would provide very little extra assurance from contamination?

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yep. In fact I'm sure that a lose lid with keep everything out providing the opening in covered even at ambient pressure

Queequeg said:

Its minimal effort to add an airlock so personally I would add one.

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Queequeg said:

In fact I'm sure that a lose lid with keep everything out providing the opening in covered even at ambient pressure

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So, let me get this straight. When it's someone else's beer you're sure it's OK to not use an airlock, but if it was your beer, you'd use one?

I believe what Quee was saying is that it isn't a difficult task to do a similar thing as I also suggested and fabricate a piece to use an airlock and is mechanically inclined enough to do so. I have to at this point only ever used a bucket with lid (not clicked down, no airlock) and a couple pounds on top "just in case." Never yet had a problem with this system. Granted this is only as a one week primary, transfer it over to a carboy for the remainder of fermentation and clearing.

In short: It's fine to use a loose lid on a primary without an airlock.

AnOldUR said:

So, let me get this straight. When it's someone else's beer you're sure it's OK to not use an airlock, but if it was your beer, you'd use one?

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AnOldUR said:

So, let me get this straight. When it's someone else's beer you're sure it's OK to not use an airlock, but if it was your beer, you'd use one?

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I use a plastic ale pale so I don't have a choice since I can't leave the lid lose.

However I should think an airlock gives you better microbial quality assurance vs a lose fitting lid, though I would say this is statisically insigificant in homebrew applications.

Since an airlock isbest pratice and is easy, I do it, if it was expensive or difficult and had the option that OP has I wouldn't.

Same reason I don't stick a 0.2um filter on the fermenter instead of a airlock, yes its better yet the hassel and expense involved verses the impact on the homebrew process makes it not worth while. If I had a stack of 0.2um filters sitting around and the lid come with a gromette pre-drill I would use them over an airlock, even though it not required. I would do it because I can easily.

90mm agar plates used for the cultivation of microorganism just have a lose overlapping lid and ambient pressure. The contamination rate is very low. So that is my rationale that a lose lid on a fermentor is o.k.

Its all about the best you can do verse effort/expense, for me the effort of an airlock is negliable. In reality the difference to quality is negliable.