HighGravity
Well-Known Member
I was wondering if there are some general locations of Co2 gas, alcohol, and unfermented wort when brewing with ale yeast. As I brew at 16-22 C I only use dry yeast, 15 grams Coopers or occasionally champage yeast.
From my understanding, inside a carboy or bucket there is completely full of Co2 in the airspace, with any excess vented out the top, then below that is a high alcohol layer, then below that is the unfermented wort/less alcoholic wort.Is this a fairly accurate understanding?
The reason I'm asking is I am adding more and more whole hops to my brews nowadays, and I was thinking that a heavy layer of floating hops/high alcohol solution sitting on top of my bucket with no airlock should be fine to stop the nasties coming in for a month. But then I thought: why does anyone use air locks at all when there are all these people who brew only in their primary buckets for a month, then bottle from there?
Also, if there is a top layer of alcohol and you are using like 10 ounces of hops that float on the top, should you try to squeeze the liquid out of that huge mass of hops somehow when racking?
From my understanding, inside a carboy or bucket there is completely full of Co2 in the airspace, with any excess vented out the top, then below that is a high alcohol layer, then below that is the unfermented wort/less alcoholic wort.Is this a fairly accurate understanding?
The reason I'm asking is I am adding more and more whole hops to my brews nowadays, and I was thinking that a heavy layer of floating hops/high alcohol solution sitting on top of my bucket with no airlock should be fine to stop the nasties coming in for a month. But then I thought: why does anyone use air locks at all when there are all these people who brew only in their primary buckets for a month, then bottle from there?
Also, if there is a top layer of alcohol and you are using like 10 ounces of hops that float on the top, should you try to squeeze the liquid out of that huge mass of hops somehow when racking?