Leaky Fermenter. Urgent. What would you do?

[philosofool]

Last night I brewed an all grain barleywine. Since I am expecting it to be in primary for four weeks, I decided to ferment it in my plastic bucket and leave my stainless for some other stuff.

The yeast is going nuts and I have discovered that the lid on said fermenter, which is very new, cannot hold a tight seal at the bung.

*F*** this. I just stayed up until two o'clock in the morning doing a 25 pound mash with nine and a half gallons of water, carefully check everything along the way and hitting a gravity of 1.108. I spent a week building up a starter. You all know how much extra work it takes to brew a barleywine, not to mention the cash. In a normal beer, I might just let it ride and rack to secondary a little early while there's still counter pressure, but I'm really reluctant to lose this one to a minor infection that might not rear it's head until after 6 months of bottle conditioning. So...


What would you do? Transfer it now, while the yeast is going nuts to eat the O2 into the steel fermenter?

 

[Shred]

Where is it stored? Is it in a sealed fermentation chamber? If so, I wouldn't worry about it. If not, can you swap out your airlock or blow off tube for a larger diameter tube?

 

[hezagenius]

Is there a grommet in the hole or is the hole just a circle cut out of the bucket lid?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I would not worry about it.

 

[m00ps]

I had this happen and I got some gorilla tape and taped down the lid on all sides to sort of pull it tighter to seal. Didn;t work entirely, but beer was fine. If its going nuts, air is escaping out any leaky spots, not going in. I'd try to seal it as best you can, and then maybe transfer it to another vessel once it calms down

 

[LLBeanJ]

Soak a paper towel with Starsan and wad it up around the bung/airlock. Be sure you keep it wet. As far as CO2 escaping due to the poor seal, that's not going hurt anything. I never seal my bucket lid during primary.

 

[philosofool]

Is there a grommet in the hole or is the hole just a circle cut out of the bucket lid?

Circle hole, no grommet. Last time I buy one of those, I'm thinking.

 

[hezagenius]

Maybe there is supposed to be a grommet there? All the bucket fermenters I have have grommets in the hole.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Circle hole, no grommet. Last time I buy one of those, I'm thinking.

There should be a grommet. But with a beer that big you should have a blowoff.

 

[seefish]

Duct Tape, after primary I'd transfer, but I don't think you'd hurt anything by transferring now. The ferment should protect the beer.

 

[hezagenius]

For now, I'd sanitize some layers of saran wrap and use it to help get a better seal, or put a blowoff hose in if you have one that is appropriately sized. That will give you some time to get to your local home brew store to buy a grommet.

 

[YeastMode]

From what I can imagine of your situation based on your description, I would consider spraying the airlock with a good amount of StarSan, then pressing it as far down as it will go in the hole, and then (Disclaimer: I have never tried this) maybe consider using an old-time shiners trick of using a bit of flour and water mixed in a doughy paste and seal the outside of the airlock to the lid. That way, nothing "foreign" touches your beer. If you are less concerned about going the au naturel route, I am sure a bit of play-doh or silly putty would work the same.

 

[aviator01]

Go to your LHBS and get a small bung that fits the drilled hole or go to your local hardware store and find an assortment of appropriately sized grommets to fit the hole.

I've used small bungs with airlocks in buckets with great success. I just don't remember what size.

It's still early on, so you could just dump the contents into another fermentor if you can't find a suitable solution.