airlock sucks

[wstein]

Ok, did up my 4th brew the other night. Kinda rushed it a little bit, and by rushing it, I mean I didn't let my yeast sit out long enough to get a good start. I am using the White Labs yeast. I took it out at the being of my boil and placed the vial in a cup of warm water (warm to the touch) to try and speed it up to room temp. When I pitched it, I noticed that the amount of yeast in the vial was low, like bottom 1/4 of the vial compared to the yeast I pitched in my previous brew where I let it set out for almost a full 10 hours and the vial was almost 2/3's yeast.

So here it has been almost 48 hours since I pitched, and no airlock activity. Which I am kinda expecting it to take a while with the low amount of pitched yeast. My thing is, the air lock is sucking up the vodka I put into it. There is still enough to keep the air out. I am wondering why it is sucking up the vodka?

 

[Cregar]

Im still new to this.. but sounds like a vacuum. Maybe one of the more experience brewers here would chime in

 

[sirsloop]

Did you cool the wort down? What temperature did you pitch at? If you put it in there piping hot, then when wort cooled is compressed down and a vacuum was created. You can pitch those WL vials into <80&#176; wort without a starter. More than likely you have a leak somewhere. Take off the lid, if you see krausen you are good to go.

As far as the airlock sucking in... do you see bubbles going in, or is the vodka just dissapearing? I evaporated an airlock full of grain alcohol in a matter of hours before

 

[wstein]

I chilled the wort to were it was cool to the touch. I couldn't get a temp reading since my digital thermometer went on the fritz right in the middle of brewing.

It is one of those 3 piece airlocks, and the vodka is being sucked up into the cap that fits over the stem. So far is about a 1/8" inch from the top of the stem.

But I will check the lid tonight to make sure it is tight.

 

[david_42]

Sounds like the fermenter cooled down since you pitched. It's probably close to room temperature by now, whatever that might be. Has a krausen formed?

 

[wstein]

I don't know. It is a sealed bucket, so I can tell.

 

[sirsloop]

pop the top quickly and just look in. If you see foam/krausen... lid it and let it sit. If you dont, then I would repitch with a packet of dry yeast. At two days, the fermenter should be at peak activity... I would asssume at least 1" of krausen even if you used yeast with a long lag time.

lol... if you dont have any dry yeast and there isnt a local HBS... you may be on the way to your first wonder-brew! (dry bread yeast from the grocery store) Warm sweet wort is like prime parget for bacteria... they wont wait around and you need a healthy yeast colony to kill them off.

 

[Muntzster]

A lot of mine evaporated also .

 

[wstein]

good news, I checked my primary last night and the airlock was bubbling good.

whew, was a little worried on this one

 

[Exo]

Believe it or not, your wort will shrink a little as it cools to your ferment temps. So if you have 75 deg. wort and it cools slowly to 65 deg your wort will shrink. That loss of space has to be taken up by other "space" If theres no space available it will start sucking your vodka into your brew.

But really, no worries!

 

[Cheesefood]

Believe it or not, your wort will shrink a little as it cools to your ferment temps.

Good old sampling.

 

[wstein]

I didn't know that the wort would shrink like that when it cools down. Guess you learn something new everyday

 

[Desert_Sky]

I didn't know that the wort would shrink like that when it cools down. Guess you learn something new everyday

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