Just one more little question

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chris_newton

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Hi again

Thanks all for your help so far. like i said in previous question i have bought a Fermentation bin with no hole in the top to put an air lock in it, i have the option tomorrow of exchanging it for a fermentation bin with a hole in it for a air lock. Just to clarify i am going to be making lager so do i need the bin with the hole in it and a air lock?

Thanks everyone

Chris
 
Do you have some other vessel, like a glass carboy, to transfer the beer into after about a week? You need one. It's good to get the beer off the dead yeast cake and lock it away from air in a carboy, with only a small amount of "air" space in it. Compared to a bucket style fermenter, with lots of headroom, the carboy requires less co2 to be air free.

Which is to say, my advice it to ferment for around a week in a bucket with no airlock... it'll produce and leak a lot of co2. Once the fermentation stops, transfer the beer by siphon into a sanitized carboy, attack sanitized airlock, and let stand two weeks.

Then, with your empty primary fermenting bin, you'll no doubt get the idea to start another beer kit!

Your other posts say you have some kind of keg.. will it hold the whole batch?

Sonner or later, you're just gonna have to take the plunge and make the damn kit. In the words of Byron Birch "I sometimes think beer, like a growling dog, can sense when it has someone intimidated." Brew it up. Have a good time. You will quickly learn over 2 or 3 batches how to do things better and better. And really, it's not that hard, if the other turkeys on this site manage it...
 
now im confused! i am going to make it but at the weekend, so what your saying is i dont need a fermenting barrel with a airlock? but i thought this was dangerous? ie could explode etc, as my fermenting bin has a snap on lid with not one hole anywhere!

All i was going to do was make it in the fermenting bin then after its fermented, tranfer it over to my pressure barrel which does hold all 40 pints. leave it in that for a few weeks after fermenting and drink!

Its just this damn fermenting bin! to get a airlock or not to get a airlock..that is the question!
 
I'd go with the airlock on the primary fermenter. With all due respect to Sas. I've never heard of anyone who recomended fermenting without some way to relieve the pressure. You say you are doing a Lager, are you using lager yeast? If so you'll need to chill it down to the 46-54 degree F range and I have found a glass carboy works best for that. Good luck
 
I've heard of ppl leaving the lid sitting on but not clipped onto the fermenting bucket.
Personally I have a 25 litre fermenter, with an airlock. I have also a pressure keg. I have done the initial ferment in the fermenter and then rack the beer to the pressure keg and add priming sugar. Result is very palatable, and enjoyed by many at a recent BBQ. I don't have a bucket though, so I can't comment on that one. If you can swap the top for an airlock one then go for it. I think it'd be more useful like that anyway, I can't think of any reason why you would ever need a lid without an airlock, but plenty where you would need one WITH an airlock
 
I'd also go with a bucket lid with an airlock. The bucket probobly wont explode, but the lid will pop off and you run the chance of contaminating your beer.

I don't want to tell you how to brew your beer, but for a lager, you really should ferment in the primary until the airlock activity has diminished (at 45-55 or so degrees) then rack (siphon) to a secondary fermentor (usually a glass carboy) again with an airlock and again at the cool temperature, then bottle, and then let bottle condition. From Brew day to drink day could take as long as six months to really get a lager to condition just right, but who can wait that long.
 
Click Here

The link is for the kit that I started out with. I bought the cheapest one and I regret not spending the few extra bucks for the Advanced kit (scroll to the bottom). I thought, 'I'll get the cheap one incase I dont like brewing". At the time I didnt realize, who wouldnt like brewing! Spend the $110. It is more than worth it.

Also, you can see the bucket with the airlock in the picture.
 
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