Northern Brewer buckets or Yeast Choice.

[blefferd]

Maybe you guys can shed some light on this. I recently purchased 2 NB buckets and lids as my primary fermenters. I have not used buckets in years to ferment in and cannot recall if they had a seal on the lid or not. The issue I have have is I am not sure if its the yeast or buckets not sealing.

I have brewed 2 lagers recently and neither of them really had any activity in the airlock. I am using a standard S style bubbler with vodka in the airlock. The first lager had very minimal activity after about 3 days and on about the 3 1/2 day it started bubbling a little more then stopped. I pitched the yeast directly from the packet with out rehydrating. This second brew I made this weekend, yeast was rehydrated as per directions from a dry yeast thread, I still have no activity at all after about 2 1/2 days, pretty much the vodka in the airlock has not moved, and is sitting level in both bubbles.

I didnt brew any different than I normally do, the only thing I did different than any other time is the fermenter NB bucket which does not have seal on the lid and the yeast. The yeast I used is Saflager 05, sitting at around 55-56* for primary fermentation.

So is it the bucket leaking from under the lid or the yeast? This is the second time I have ever used it and so far not liking it (Saflager Dry Lager yeast). I have not tired the first batch because it is still lagering.

I did not take a gravity reading to see if fermintation had stopped on the first batch, (this would have probably been the wise thing to do and I just thought of it lol)

 

[stpug]

Most likely it's just a lid that doesn't provide a perfect seal. Although not NB, a couple of my buckets do the same. The beer still tastes good though

A gravity sample will be the only way to know what's really going on though.

 

[blefferd]

Most likely it's just a lid that doesn't provide a perfect seal. Although not NB, a couple of my buckets do the same. The beer still tastes good though

A gravity sample will be the only way to know what's really going on though.

Thanks for the reply, I will take a sample when this second batch is getting close to being finished.

 

[cheezwiz]

I have wasted $ in the past getting more yeast when my primary airlock fails to bubble, only to pop the bucket lid and see active krausen. Buckets often have slow leaks in the lid, especially if you've pried the lid off in the past.