Getting away from airlocks

I've been reading about spunding valves and fermentation under pressure and so forth, and I have an interest in getting away from airlocks as much as possible. I have a bad tendency to let them run dry and then my poor beer gets contaminated. So i'm toying with an idea that's sort of a modification of a spunding valve adapted for use with carboys.

At the moment I do most of my primary fermentation in glass carboys. I'm usually doing 5 gallon batches in 6.5 gallon carboys, so for all but the most active fermentations I'm usually ok with just an airlock rather than a blowoff hose. I'm not opposed to using blowoff tubes but I'm trying to get away from having a large vessel of liquid wasting space in my fermentation chamber. I don't want a bucket of water when that space could be occupied by a carboy of beer.

So I'm toying with the idea of basically running blowoff tubes into a gas manifold fixed with a pressure relief valve. Obviously a very low pressure release valve (i'm thinking on the order of 5 psi, definitely no more than 10). The manifold would be initially purged with co2 , and then I'm thinking that this would basically create a closed system allowing the gas produced by fermentation to bleed off without allowing too much pressure to build up in the carboys.

Am I way off track or missing anything here? has anybody tried anything similar? i've never seen anything posted along these lines and when I tried searching I mostly just came up with fermentation under pressure.

5 or 10 psi will probably splode your carboys. The force on the wall of the carboy might be much greater than you think at that pressure. Bottle can handle it because the surface area is much less. Force = pressure(psi) * surface area.

I'm just guessing though.

You might look into dry airlocks. I think a few suppliers have them.

http://www.morebeer.com/products/bottle-12-dry-tap-airlock-reusable-closure.html

Unless you live in the desert, it takes a pretty long time for an airlock to go dry.

I have had some wine in carboys in my living room behind the couch since December 2013, and I keep thinking I'll bottle them at some point..........but I've added liquid to the airlocks maybe three times(?).

If that's not something that is ok, then using kegs is probably the best alternative. Stainless, airtight, lightweight and unbreakable, it's the perfect vessel for fermenting as well as storing/serving. It also means no racking!

Makes sense. I guess 10 psi is really close to serving pressure. Definitely too high. I've found airlocks dry after as little as 6-8 weeks. I'm definitely moving towards fermenting in kegs but I need a few more before I can completely leave behind carboys. Thanks for the feedback! Probably saved me from a big mess

Yooper, what kind if airlock do you use? I find the larger ones that have the float in them lose quite a bit of liquid in 6-8 weeks. I'm in West Michigan, not the desert.

Siberian said:

Yooper, what kind if airlock do you use? I find the larger ones that have the float in them lose quite a bit of liquid in 6-8 weeks. I'm in West Michigan, not the desert.

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I use both the "S" ones, and also the three piece ones, whatever I grab from the drawer.

Siberian said:

Yooper, what kind if airlock do you use? I find the larger ones that have the float in them lose quite a bit of liquid in 6-8 weeks. I'm in West Michigan, not the desert.

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My question is why you are keeping your beer in the fermenter for 6-8 weeks? Sure, there is the occasional high gravity brew, but usually people aren't brewing those very often.

Most "normal" gravity beers are finished within 10-14 days, and some people give it an extra week just to be sure. I don't, but some people do.

broadbill said:

My question is why you are keeping your beer in the fermenter for 6-8 weeks? Sure, there is the occasional high gravity brew, but usually people aren't brewing those very often.

Most "normal" gravity beers are finished within 10-14 days, and some people give it an extra week just to be sure. I don't, but some people do.

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They're sour beers and wines. Many are in the fermentor for more than a year.