Airlock use...when is it not needed?

[ILOVEBEER]

Hello,

I ferment in a sanke in my garage (temp is maintained by an aquarium H20 heater and tub full of water) for 3 weeks and utilize a 5 gallon bucket with starsan/water as an airlock. I have made the mistake twice of leaving the bucket in place when I cold crash the keg and both times I had suckback. I have a 10 gallon batch fermenting now and soon to be cold crashed....this time I will NOT put the airlock in with it and cover the blowoff tubes with foil.

My question:

At what point in the 3 weeks of primary is the airlock irrelevant?

Is it a good idea to leave the airlock on until it is time to coldcrash and it is in a sealed environment (fridge)

 

[ILOVEBEER]

I ferment in a sanke....

 

[mmb]

Get an orange carboy cap and pickup two white caps for the racking ports. Slip that over the spear hole and then cold crash away.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

IMO, the time an airlock is most needed is after fermentation has subsided and it's not releasing much CO2. Seems if it's putting off a lot of CO2 then foil or equivalent will suffice.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

My sanke has a top from brewerhardware.com pretty much what you are talking about except for it is SS

Will it ever hurt or change the taste of my beer if the airlock is left connected to the sanitizer bucket for the three week duration?

SpanisCastleAle,

I thought as you did and placed the sanke in the fridge with the airlock (at alower level so siphon would not occur) and it still sucked back. I think once it is in a fridge in a sealed environment a piece of foil will suffice.....any objections/comments?

 

[mmb]

Could always use an inline sanitary air filter like one uses with an aquarium pump to airate wort with.

Slip that inline and it would allow air to move back in, suckback, without worry..

 

[ILOVEBEER]

I use this:

The filter is a nice idea, but would foil suffice while it is in a closed/seled environment like a fridge?

Is a filter really necessary?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

One thing you could try is to cap/seal the sanke when the beer is a point or so above terminal gravity. That would allow some pressure to build up as it finishes (also partially carbonating the beer) and then when you crash it you should still have some pressure remaining.

If I was fermenting in a container that held pressure I think I'd always cap it before terminal gravity just to buy a little carbonation. I can't explain why but natural carbonation just seems to yield smaller foam bubbles (i.e. thicker head). I always transfer my lagers to cornies before they reach terminal gravity and let them naturally carb.

EDIT: When cold crashing I'm much more concerned with O2 getting in the beer than contamination.

 

[shortyjacobs]

You could put a water lock in there. Get a gallon milk jug or something. Your blowoff hose runs into here. The jug is EMPTY. You run a second hose from the jug to the 5 gallon bucket.

When water sucks back, it will suck into the milk jug, but not up into your keg.

 

[ILOVEBEER]

I was thinking....I know that automotive applications use a "one way" vacuum valve. How about buying two of those and attaching them to the ports shown above....C02 out...nothing back in.

How is that?

 

[Mongo64]

My sanke has a top from brewerhardware.com pretty much what you are talking about except for it is SS

Will it ever hurt or change the taste of my beer if the airlock is left connected to the sanitizer bucket for the three week duration?

SpanisCastleAle,

I thought as you did and placed the sanke in the fridge with the airlock (at alower level so siphon would not occur) and it still sucked back. I think once it is in a fridge in a sealed environment a piece of foil will suffice.....any objections/comments?

I think you are right and a piece of foil is best when you put this in the fridge. I don't see anything bad getting inside.