Revvy is right... a lesson in RDWHAHB

So on Friday I brewed my second all grain batch, Ed's Kolsch. The brew day went flawlessly I hit all of my temps and gravities. For the first time with this batch I made a starter using WLP029. The starter worked great and after 36 hours I had a nice layer of yeast settling a bit. I cold crashed the starter, warmed it to pitching temperature, and pitched the slurry. As of this morning I went to check it and OH NOES!!! no air lock activity. So I decided that after work I would come back and take a gravity reading to see if it was fermenting at all. Well I came home today and got hit with the smell of fermenting beer filling my house. I went and looked and could actually see a krausen line if I turned the light on. I took a look at the air lock and noticed that my stopper has a slight imperfection in it and all of the gasses were escaping through the tiny little crack it had created. After I pushed the stopper down it started bubbling like crazy. And the lesson of this rant is that just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not happening. End rant.


Cliffs: Your air lock is NOT a scientific instrument and beer is good

You had me at Revvy is right.

You had me at







And yes, he is.

revvy is not only right... but kinda cute.

I knwo that Revvy is right a lot of the time, but did you have to put it in the thread title.

Get some of those purple tops that go right on the top of the carboy that the air lock goes into. You won't have to worry about that anymore or pushing the stopper into the carboy like I did once.

thataintchicken said:

revvy is not only right... but kinda cute.

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*blush*

Now now now....calm down there...

Uh thanks Hound_Dog. Just trying to help...

If you use foil you won't get all cought up in the airlock activity game.

jacksonbrown said:

If you use foil you won't get all cought up in the airlock activity game.

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+1 to that!!!!

I did use foil... on the starter. I don't know if any foil that I've seen is wide enough to fit over a six gallon bucket without using two sheets.

Hound_Dog said:

I did use foil... on the starter. I don't know if any foil that I've seen is wide enough to fit over a six gallon bucket without using two sheets.

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they make foil big enough...... I have a roll of it for making beef jerkey in the oven, it is 16 inches wide.

Arkador said:

they make foil big enough...... I have a roll of it for making beef jerkey in the oven, it is 16 inches wide.

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Mmm, beef jerky!!!

Arkador said:

they make foil big enough...... I have a roll of it for making beef jerkey in the oven, it is 16 inches wide.

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What kind of beer do you plan on serving with the jerky? These are important things.