Open Fermentation

[MountainManAAA]

So i was speaking with a physics professor who i recently found out had been brewing for a long time. I was talking to him about my brewing when having a lid and an airlock came up and he was shocked . He claimed that the only proper way to brew beer was with an open primary fermentation vessel which i had never heard of.

Ive never heard of this and looked around a little on here and couldnt find much on open fermentation but im still curious.

If you know anything about this let me know!

 

[McKnuckle]

Google "Yorkshire square" and learn about how open fermentation is still practiced in England. And check out this BrewingTV episode:

http://brewingtv.com/episodes/2010/5/17/brewing-tv-episode-4-open-fermentation.html

 

[PGEduardo]

Anchor Brewing in San Francisco still does this. Although it's more of a semi cleanroom type process (filtered air with positive pressure).

I regularly just place tinfoil over the carboy opening and keep it in my ferm. chamber. As long as you don't have a ton of "dirty" air flowing in and out you can usually be fine.

 

[passedpawn]

Not a clean room at Fuchschen in Dusseldorf, Germany. All they make is Altbier. Large concrete (painted) fermentors. That's me dropping the holy **** in the audio

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwSazxo63DU[/ame]

 

[didinho]

I think that brewing at home is very difficult to do a open fermentation.
in my cellar, built one century ago it's impossible: it smells fungi and microrganisms and I'll get for sure some kind of barley-vinear

 

[Hanglow]

Loads of commercial breweries still do this

Open fermentation at home would just be using a bucket with the lid on but unsecured. Just means there is no top pressure on the wort as it ferments

If you want to do it truly open to the elements, make sure you use a good top cropping yeast and carefully monitor the gravity so you can rack it at the correct time. Most homebrewers can't do that of course, I can only brew/rack/bottle etc at weekends for example. Even then the yeast might behave differently due to the different type of fermentors we use compared to what they evolved in