BIAB, no-chill & ferment - all in an unsealed pot. Risk of contamintaion?

[Yirg]

I'm planning to brew 1-gallon micro batches using a simplified process, and use only one vessel for everything (except for bottling). Based on reading many discussions it seems this is very much doable. The pot I intend to use for these micro batches doesn't have a spigot or an airlock. I plan to get a floating wireless hydrometer (such as iSpindle) to find when fermentation is over, and to let CO2 release through the (small) gap between the pot and the lid. However, the same gap may also let baddies in. Is just covering the pot with a lid sufficient to prevent contamination? Any idea how likely this is to happen and whether there's a simple solutions?

Thanks!

 

[RM-MN]

Your chance of contamination is low. Once fermentation starts there will be an outflow of CO2 that bacteria can not swim against. After fermentation is complete very few types of bacteria can survive in the acid environment of beer.

 

[odie]

I would suggest a pot with spigot, although difficult to find in a 2-3 gal size. I'm assuming you will have to start with big enough for full volume mash.

And preferable a pot with a tight/snug lid.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

You could drill a pot lid for a stopper and airlock. Place the lid, then tightly stretch several turns of saran wrap around the whole pot lid to pot joint. Just watch the airlock. If you have a good seal everywhere, then you will know fermentation is complete when after a couple days in a row you observe no activity in the airlock. Then just to be sure, give it another week. Or two. Won't hurt a thing.

You could also make a gasket and clamp the pot lid on, or weight it down around the edges. If you want to take more precautions, again fit a stopper and airlock to the lid. Otherwise just let excess pressure blow by the gasket and it "should" be okay. Usually it is. With gallon batches you aren't risking much if you get a bad one, just be sure you clean everything well so you don't start a culture of critters that love beer.

 

[hotbeer]

It's not something new. There have been and are quite a few that just leave a lid on a kettle. Some crunch some foil around the lid, but I'm not sure exactly how much help that really is. Might keep the lid from getting knocked off easily.

If you use top fermenting yeast that make lot of foam you'll have even more protection from O2. And some recipes stay foamier longer than others.

 

[Yirg]

You could drill a pot lid for a stopper and airlock. Place the lid, then tightly stretch several turns of saran wrap around the whole pot lid to pot joint. Just watch the airlock.

This sounds easy enough. Saran tape and a couple of clamps on the sides should keep a reasonable seal. I'll try that. Thanks!

 

[Bobby_M]

The problem is probably mostly the no chill thing. First, as it cools it will pull a lot of air in because it has to otherwise you'd implode the pot. The amount of time it takes for all that to cool down naturally is many hours and that's the period where the incoming oxygen is going to do its damage. That's why people that successfully no-chill use soft sided jerrycans since they can shrink and stay sealed.

 

[Yirg]

With such small mass I hope the chilling part won't be very long. Cooling 1 gallon of wort in a 2.5 gallon stainless steel partially submerged in a sink fllled with room temperature water should be pretty quick I'd assume. Maybe I should first test test this with just hot water.

BTW, how about adding a campden tablet just to be on the safe side? I've never used them before, but if it can take care of germs without impacting the yeast it sound like an easy solution.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I tried this a few years ago (with a milk stout as I recall). I could not get a good seal around the lid, so I just ran with it. The beer was an oxidized mess that was not very good. I would not worry much about a solid seal at the start and during fermentation, but my one data point pushed me to only ferment in containers that will have a reasonable seal after fermentation is complete. Something like plastic wrap might be good enough.

There are plenty of options for cheap small fermenters like glass jugs, and 2 gallon buckets. I have reused 1 gallon PET jugs that distilled water came in. There are some nice small PET fermenters as well, like the Fermonster and the Little Big Mount Bubblers.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

BTW, how about adding a campden tablet just to be on the safe side? I've never used them before, but if it can take care of germs without impacting the yeast it sound like an easy solution.

I am pretty sure if you are adding enough campden to ward off infection, you are also inhibiting the yeast. In beer brewing, campden tablets are generally only used in very small quantities to remove Chlorine and Chloramine, or sometimes as an anti-oxidant.

 

[Yirg]

There are plenty of options for cheap small fermenters like glass jugs, and 2 gallon buckets.

I actually have a 1 gallon fermentation tank and a wine fridge I've used in the past for temperature controlled fermentation. It's just that I find the idea of doing all steps in one vessel appealing. Maybe I should start with mashing and boiling in the same pot, but not being too adventurous with fermentation. I can then brwe the same recipe with fermentation in the pot. If it works as well, then I can stick with the simplified process for the next brews. If not, then well, that's another data point against fermenting in the pot.

 

[hotbeer]

Brewing 1 gallon as I do won't give you much to drink. If you drink only one a day, then you'll need to tie up at least three if not four pots to keep you in beer and hope company don't come to drink your few extras.

Fermenters can be as cheap as a bucket from the big box discount stores or even a gallon jug that use to have water in it. I prefer clear fermenters so I can see into them without opening. Seeing the beer inside gives a much better idea of what's going on inside. Much more than any airlock or bubbler. And if you have a spigot on that fermenter, you can get a sample for the hydrometer with much less intrusion of air than if you have to pop the lid or stopper to get a sample.

If your only goal is just inquisitiveness, then do it. I did. I regretted tying up that kettle so long as I had other things I could have been doing with it.

If you are looking for easy, no chill ways to brew then there are probably better ways to go about that.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

If you have not see it, if you want a quick read (of only 184 pages of posts!!!) there is some good discussion of brewing 1 gallon batches on this thread: 1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!

In my case, my goal was not to brew in the fermenting vessel, but to try and make some small stainless fermenters out of cheap 2 gallon kettles from Walmart. I still have the kettles around and I have thought about trying to get a better seal on the lid, but I have since picked up several other small fermenters that I like much better. I am a huge fan of fermenters with spigots, and a spigot/ball valve that works on a boil kettle costs as much as a decent fermenter with a spigot.

My motivating for converting a kettle into a fermenter came mostly from this thread: DIY Stainless Steel Fermenters

 

[sourlovestory]

If you look at some of the Clawhammer Supply videos, sometimes they ferment right in the kettle. They use these clamps to keep the lid on tight and use the sparging hose connection to run a makeshift airlock into a glass of starsan.

 

[cgriffith]

I ferment in kettle 4 gal batches. At the moment I don't take gravity readings during fermentation. I just wait two weeks(or more if my schedule is busy) and bottle. Now I use the Chapman Univessel, but I started this process using a stainless steel pot. I drilled hole in lid for airlock via rubber stopper, and a ball valve port at bottom. To seal the lid, I built a silicone hose ring that fits between the lid and pot and I use binder clips to clamp the lid down.

 

[Miraculix]

I tried it, it doesn't work. You'll be oxidising your beer once fermentation slows down.

Even worse, acedobacter will start munching on the alcohol turning it into vinegar and eating all the foam enhancing proteins. They need oxygen for this, and you are supplying it.

 

[BrewZer]

If only there was some kind of tight-sealing pot with a pressure relief valve...

 

[Zambezi Special]

If only there was some kind of tight-sealing pot with a pressure relief valve...

It'what I was thinking: how 'bout using a pressure cooker? Might be too small though...

 

[eldernut]

I ferment in a large open pickle jar (I only do micro batches) and just use a rubber band and a freezer sheet. The 'lid' acts the same as an airlock. I also used to keep the fermenter under the house, in the open air garden environment and nope, never got anything interesting in there. A lot of brew advice is voodoo, giving off the impression that microbes are just waiting to tunnel their way into your fementer for the express purpose of ruining your beer. It's not actually that easy to get wild stuff in there and growing in the face of heavy duty commercial yeast. Getting a spontaneous ferment happening is relatively hard, I have failed to get a sourdough starter happening multiple times.

 

[greywolf]

I do no chill and have zero problems, whether I let it chill and ferment in the kettle and then keg or run the hot wort into a keg and let it chill and ferment there. Either way I don't transfer out of the keg. I prefer to let the trub settle in the kettle overnight and then transfer to a keg for ferment and serving. I pitch the yeast within 24 hours of the end of boil, when it falls to temp. My kettle lid fits pretty good and I don't use the saran wrap. I just drape my rinsed BIAB piece of voile over the kettle. It has to dry and will keep out the fruit flies. They are a bigger problem for me than the bacteria. Oxidation has not been a problem once its in the keg. My oxidation issues are all from bottling.