I'm hoping someone can explain what was going on here, and assure me that my beer will turn out ok:
I just recently purchased a new air lock, an s bubble type, and I used it on my primary fermenter bucket with an IPA using a Wyeast activator pack that had swelled nicely before pitching. Seems all is well. 3 days later and I haven't seen a bubble come out of my air lock; however, it is obvious from the vodka levels in the two sides of the air lock that there is certainly a higher pressure inside the fermenter than outside (I first noticed the higher pressure after about a day), so something must be going on because the air lock indicated aprooximately equal pressures inside and out at the start. Then, I put a little pressure on the lid of the bucket and was able to force a bubble or two through the air lock. Immediately following that the levels in the air lock returned to what they were before I pushed on the lid. On a whim, I sanitized my 3 piece type air lock and replaced my s type on the fermenter, and immediately it started bubbling through the 3 piece air lock. I should add that upon inspection of the s type air lock, neither myself nor my wine making room mate could find anything wrong with it (no damage, manufacturing mistakes, etc).
Has anyone else had anything like this happen? Should I be worried about contamination/infection? And, please, if anyone can explain how this could have happened, I'm baffled.
Cheers!
-Rick
Primary: Octane IPA
Secondary: None
Bottled: American Amber Ale
Next Brews: (1) Oatmeal Stout
(2) Honey Amber Ale
I just recently purchased a new air lock, an s bubble type, and I used it on my primary fermenter bucket with an IPA using a Wyeast activator pack that had swelled nicely before pitching. Seems all is well. 3 days later and I haven't seen a bubble come out of my air lock; however, it is obvious from the vodka levels in the two sides of the air lock that there is certainly a higher pressure inside the fermenter than outside (I first noticed the higher pressure after about a day), so something must be going on because the air lock indicated aprooximately equal pressures inside and out at the start. Then, I put a little pressure on the lid of the bucket and was able to force a bubble or two through the air lock. Immediately following that the levels in the air lock returned to what they were before I pushed on the lid. On a whim, I sanitized my 3 piece type air lock and replaced my s type on the fermenter, and immediately it started bubbling through the 3 piece air lock. I should add that upon inspection of the s type air lock, neither myself nor my wine making room mate could find anything wrong with it (no damage, manufacturing mistakes, etc).
Has anyone else had anything like this happen? Should I be worried about contamination/infection? And, please, if anyone can explain how this could have happened, I'm baffled.
Cheers!
-Rick
Primary: Octane IPA
Secondary: None
Bottled: American Amber Ale
Next Brews: (1) Oatmeal Stout
(2) Honey Amber Ale
