Help! My stopper and airlock will NOT stay in my secondary!

Help! My stopper and airlock will NOT stay in my secondary! What do I do... If I do not hold it is just pops up and out. I think it is the right size - #7 in a 5 gal carboy. This has happened with my other brews but would stop after about 30 seconds of holding.

kuips said:

Help! My stopper and airlock will NOT stay in my secondary! What do I do... If I do not hold it is just pops up and out. I think it is the right size - #7 in a 5 gal carboy. This has happened with my other brews but would stop after about 30 seconds of holding.

Click to expand...

You just have to dry off the stopper and the hole.

kuips said:

Help! My stopper and airlock will NOT stay in my secondary! What do I do... If I do not hold it is just pops up and out. I think it is the right size - #7 in a 5 gal carboy. This has happened with my other brews but would stop after about 30 seconds of holding.

Click to expand...

My guess is that either the stopper or the carboy is a bit wet. Either take a clean papertowel and dry them, or let it sit for a while until dry and then put the stopper on. I usually just set the stopper on gently, with the airlock in, until it's dry and then slide it in. Sometimes it's wet with star-san, and so I just dry it with a clean papertowel.

I tried drying it and it happened again... maybe I did not get all the star san. I just really dryed it now and am letting it air dry a bit... I hope this works. Thanks

Take some foil soak it in star san for a few and wrap it over the top. You don't NEED an airlock. 50% of the beers I brew don't ever get move my airlock because of a bad seal.

If you switch from Star San to Iodophor, you won't have that problem, but you may get brown stains on the kitchen counter.

-a.

seems to be holding now. man, was I freaking out for about 20min fiddling with that - everytime I took my hands off it popped out and fell on the floor.

I spray mine down with starsan so that happens all the time with my better bottle. I do the same thing as Yooper. Just set it on top so it covers the whole opening, then later that evening I'll come by and stick it in.

Remember, it goes against standard logic... in this case you want it dry when you shove it in, not wet and slippery.

(giggity)

I had this exact same problem tonight. My first time with Star San. There was an old post that said wiping the stopper and the throat of the carboy with rubbing alcohol will also fix the problem. It was also mentioned that paper towel is quite sanitary and you shouldn't worry about using it for the task.

those bungs that go over the top of the carboy work well. No issue with it popping out. I bought some specifically for this issue. They are the orange ones with 2 spouts sticking out

I use 1" I'd tubing shoved inside as far as it goes then put the other end inside a pale of starsan.

No slippage and have a nice blowoff.

Meh, just cover the top of the carboy with tin foil. Easy-peasy.

fits over it

For some reason I thought the #6 was the correct bung for the better bottles. Im probably wrong since this is just off the top of my head.

Lunarpancake said:

For some reason I thought the #6 was the correct bung for the better bottles. Im probably wrong since this is just off the top of my head.

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BB bungs are big- I think they are #10 or 11 off of the top of my head.

Yeah... I ended up with a bung in my primary of my current batch because of this.

I grabbed a universal bung that I had laying around and used that (since that's what I had) and had no problems at all with it. Screw the sized ones, I'm sticking to them from now on.

Yup, Better Bottles use a #10 stopper.

glenn514

+1 on #10 stopper for bb