Well, ive started several things of apple cider and blackberry wine and have just been putting a cork at the top and releasing the CO2 every day since i make a ton of stuff and dont want to buy airlocks. Is there a way i can set my stuff up so it doesnt explode while im on vacation?
Going on vacation and dont own an airlock!
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30Bones
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They are only $1.29
DIY - Drill a hole (assuming you have a bucket) in the lid, add a $0.05 grommet and run a breather hose @ $0.50.ft into a canister with sanitizer in it.
DIY - Drill a hole (assuming you have a bucket) in the lid, add a $0.05 grommet and run a breather hose @ $0.50.ft into a canister with sanitizer in it.
beergolf
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Just cover the mouth with foil.
how would this be airtight? i just dont see how
McCoy
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You don't need an airtight seal. The positive pressure of the CO2 is pretty protective, and the beer pretty quickly becomes yeast dominated and hostile to most organisms. Foil will be fine. I've fermented several batches that way and all of my starters (which, if they got contaminated, would further contaminate all of the batches I brewed with them).
but i thought alcohol wouldnt be produced unless the yeast was starved of oxygen
McCoy
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Oxygen is necessary for reproduction, and it's true that yeast reproduction dominates while there is sufficient oxygen, but A) even if there is oxygen the yeast will produce alcohol* and B) it's hard to dissolve oxygen in wort and that's why you're supposed to shake the hell out of it before you pitch your yeast. Fermenting under foil is not going to dissolve more oxygen in your beer.
*This is true because wort is a very high sugar environment. If there is relatively little sugar and lots of oxygen, I believe it is possible for yeast to reproduce without fermenting. However, yeast in wort will always produce alcohol. There's more about this in Zainasheff and White's book, Yeast. It's probably in Fix's Principles of Brewing Science too.
chemman14
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This sounds like a good way to have giant bottle bombs on your hands...
The corks cant be munch cheaper than an airlock.
The corks cant be munch cheaper than an airlock.
TNugent
Well-Known Member
Sounds like only improvised corks are available at the commissary and someone doesn't want their hooch to explode while spending some time in the SHU! j/k but buy some airlocks, they're cheap.
Who the heck told you that?
I say pony up $1.29 for an airlock and skip one soda pop on your vacation to offset the cost.
You think a sub $1.50 airlock is expensive? Wait until you have to replace all the ingredients for this batch, clean up glass shards, and fix your house when you come back to who knows how many gallons of fermenting wine that blew up everywhere while you were away. Buy airlocks. Buy lots of them.
LakeErieMonster
Well-Known Member
Buy an airlock or 5. They are a cheap, durable one-time investment.
https://bellsbeer.com/store/products/Air-Lock-%2d-Economy-3%2dPiece.html
there you go....$0.75 airlocks. that half of what people have been quoting you, so buy two.
there you go....$0.75 airlocks. that half of what people have been quoting you, so buy two.
Man, just go to the LHBS and buy yourself 10 airlocks and bungs and be done with it. It's cheaper than a 12 pack of beer.
BTW, don't buy the expensive 3 piece airlocks - they suck. The cheapo S-style airlocks are the best.
How about HBT hosts a new contest for 5 free airlocks and rigs it so this guy can win!
FWIW, to each their own on the airlock. I find if I get some krausen in an s-style then it is next to impossible to clean. For $1.29, a 3-piece is cheap and easy to clean.
FWIW, to each their own on the airlock. I find if I get some krausen in an s-style then it is next to impossible to clean. For $1.29, a 3-piece is cheap and easy to clean.
They aren't a one-time investment. If you frequently remove and reinsert airlocks into silicone bungs when sanitizing, they will eventually become brittle and break when twisting them in and out. I bought 11 of them a year ago and one of them already broke.
While true, your $1.29 investment lasted you 1 year. I've broken 2 airlocks in under 1 year and broke the center piece of another in the same time. I keep a few on hand. I just see this hobby as something that has gotten quite expensive. Quibbling over the price of a darn airlock seems so silly.
BGBC
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This or a teenage kid making it under his bed maybe...
Something fishy going on here, between this thread and his prior ones...
BGBC
Well-Known Member
I keep both on hand. 3-piece for primary, S-type for secondary/long-term.
I've broke one airlock in 25+ years. They aren't fragile at all.
In any case, you don't need to buy an airlock. Use a piece of tubing, sanitized, through a hole in the cork. Put the other end in a pitcher of water, with the end submerged. That's an airlock also.
If you are going to ever make wine or beer or mead or cider, you NEED a way to protect your product from oxidation and infection. Not buying an airlock is silly, because it's one of the required items just like you need some siphoning tubing.
kcmobrewer
Well-Known Member
Just wondering at $1 (or less) a piece, why?
You know, I'm not normally a suspicious type.
But bottles exploding in your room, and inability to buy an airlock? It sounds like someone is a minor.
I may be wrong, but I don't think so.
But bottles exploding in your room, and inability to buy an airlock? It sounds like someone is a minor.
I may be wrong, but I don't think so.
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