I will also second the previous post...I'm an airlock sniffer.
I tend to get overly excited about a batch fermenting and open it a lot just to look and smell it.
Is it bad to do this a lot?
Check out Northern Brewers Bubbler, it has a lot of good reviews. If you get it just make sure you cover it up or keep it out of the light.
I'm the non-beer-drinking home brewer. I love to sniff the airlock!! I also love to sniff beer! I'm getting pretty good at recognizing the hops just by sniffing.
Yeah. I am strange.
Just call me the red haired hop sniffer. I brew for my husband!!
My name is DJ and I am a airlock sniffer
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Its nice to know Im not weird when I do that.
It doesn't matter as long as you aren't letting too much fall in (dust, saliva, tears of joy).
Chris White from White Labs recommends not using an airlock at all and just placing a piece of sanitized foil loosely over the carboy opening.
If active fermentation is occurring, any oxygen that you may introduce will be pushed out by the CO2 being produced by the yeast. CO2 will cover your beer in a nice blanket after fermentation is over.
+1
Open fermentation is still practiced by some commercial breweries. I sometimes just use plastic wrap.
Honestly, if I want to really get to know a beer or a particular type of yeast, I take samples daily to test gravity and flavors during active fermentation and beyond.
I never remove the lid, but I do pull the airlock to test gravity.
I never remove the lid, but I do pull the airlock to test gravity.
What do you use to pull a sample? The hole for my airlock is only 3/8", then the grommet takes up some of that diameter. So you sample with a straw or something?
My wife's pretty sick of me handing her cloudy brown stuff from fermenters and saying "Taste this!"
This method would only really work if you had a refractometer (or a giant bung hole O_O). The one I bought came with a 6ish inch eye dropper
Refractometers are only accurate prior to fermentation. After that, it's all hydrometer.
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