I bought one of the Krausen Catchers from Jay at NorCal, and while it appears to do what it's supposed to do (provide a CO2 return to the fermenter when it cold crashes), I wasn't able to have it do that.
That is, the Star-San in the second jar was never sucked back into the first jar. Calculations suggested I should have pulled back nearly 1/2 quart of star-san as the fermenter's headspace gases contracted as the fermenter cooled. But i was getting nothing.
If you believe in the laws of physics, then the headspace has to be pulling a vacuum, and it must be filled by the CO2 from the krausen catcher. However, it wasn't doing that--which means I have a leak somewhere.
To isolate that leak, I also made my own krausen catcher. I used plastic canning jar lids, drilled holes in them, then epoxied 3/8" rigid tubing from a bottling wand into the holes. Well. I have done everything I can to isolate where the gas leak is, and it cannot be coming from those jars. They're sealed tight, and there can't be a leak at the connections. At least, very doubtful.
Tonite, I checked my fermenting Darth Lager, which is producing maybe 4 bubbles a second; going to town. HOWEVER, when I opened up the refrigerator to check on things, I caught the wonderful aroma of fermenting beer. I usually love that smell--except, in this case, it has to be from a leak at the fermenter lid someplace.
That lid, in the bigmouth bubbler, is dead tight. I sealed up the bunghole with a piece of plastic and epoxy, inserted a tube epoxied into place.....and still I'm getting the smell of fermentation.That system should be closed--if the smell is going anywhere, it has to be going into the jars....but it's not.
QUESTIONS: is there any way gas can be passing through the silicone tubing I'm using? It's 5/16" in ID, the walls of the tubing are 1/16" thick.
Could it be that fermentation gases are passing through the plastic fermenter itself?
And finally, the most obvious one: is that lid simply not effective at sealing tightly?
**************
I want to do everything I can to eliminate oxygen post-fermentation, and this seemed like the perfect system to help do that. Except....as soon as there's a little vacuum pulled in the fermenter during cold-crash, it appears to be satisfied by pulling in outside air, not the CO2 in the jars.
Pics below. Here's a 3-second video showing the rate of bubbling:
https://youtu.be/7KEwV5dC1gs
That is, the Star-San in the second jar was never sucked back into the first jar. Calculations suggested I should have pulled back nearly 1/2 quart of star-san as the fermenter's headspace gases contracted as the fermenter cooled. But i was getting nothing.
If you believe in the laws of physics, then the headspace has to be pulling a vacuum, and it must be filled by the CO2 from the krausen catcher. However, it wasn't doing that--which means I have a leak somewhere.
To isolate that leak, I also made my own krausen catcher. I used plastic canning jar lids, drilled holes in them, then epoxied 3/8" rigid tubing from a bottling wand into the holes. Well. I have done everything I can to isolate where the gas leak is, and it cannot be coming from those jars. They're sealed tight, and there can't be a leak at the connections. At least, very doubtful.
Tonite, I checked my fermenting Darth Lager, which is producing maybe 4 bubbles a second; going to town. HOWEVER, when I opened up the refrigerator to check on things, I caught the wonderful aroma of fermenting beer. I usually love that smell--except, in this case, it has to be from a leak at the fermenter lid someplace.
That lid, in the bigmouth bubbler, is dead tight. I sealed up the bunghole with a piece of plastic and epoxy, inserted a tube epoxied into place.....and still I'm getting the smell of fermentation.That system should be closed--if the smell is going anywhere, it has to be going into the jars....but it's not.
QUESTIONS: is there any way gas can be passing through the silicone tubing I'm using? It's 5/16" in ID, the walls of the tubing are 1/16" thick.
Could it be that fermentation gases are passing through the plastic fermenter itself?
And finally, the most obvious one: is that lid simply not effective at sealing tightly?
**************
I want to do everything I can to eliminate oxygen post-fermentation, and this seemed like the perfect system to help do that. Except....as soon as there's a little vacuum pulled in the fermenter during cold-crash, it appears to be satisfied by pulling in outside air, not the CO2 in the jars.
Pics below. Here's a 3-second video showing the rate of bubbling:
https://youtu.be/7KEwV5dC1gs
