i was curious if anyone else ONLY uses a blow off tube system for their fermenters (tube from fermenter that goes into bottle of water) instead of an air lock. think i used an airlock 2-3 times my whole beer career.
I only use a blowoff... an inch-ish tube jammed into the carboy. As has been mentioned, it's essentially an airlock. Not sure that there's any benefit to switching to a "real" airlock mid-way through a fermentation. So why bother?
Air contracts as it cools. If there's too much headspace I'd be worried that the cold crash would suck the bung into the carboy or even crack the glass if the bung won't budge. I know nothing about calculating thermal expansion, but I wonder how much headspace and temperature drop would be necessary to enter the danger zone. If you've got experience doing it I guess it must work out fine, but I certainly wouldn't try this myself.Blow-off always . After appx 2 weeks I switch to a solid bung and start the cold crash. I also only use carboys no buckets fwiw
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