Quick question about opening bucket lid during fermenting

[ganu]

Per our local homebrew store, I kept the lid of my bucket cracked for the first couple of days of fermenting. About 36 hours after pitching my yeast I saw a lot of foam/krausen coming from the edge where the lid wasn't sealed.

So I took the lid off and cleaned the bucket rim and the lid's seal.

How big of a No-No was it that I removed the lid to clean all foam out of the sealed joints?

Again, it was early in the fermentation process and as of now, my blowoff tube/airlock is still rocking.


Muchas gracias

G

 

[Pappers_]

Not a big deal at all. But, I don't think you need to keep the bucket lid cracked open if you use an airlock or blowoff tube. I don't know why they told you that, but it seems unneccesary.

 

[ganu]

Thanks. I should have mentioned that AFTER I cleaned the joint, I sealed everything up so that the airlock WOULD take over. Of course my airlock wouldn't have been doing much with a cracked lid that's doing all of the venting. My bad on that part.

The store owner was mostly saying to keep it cracked for just the first couple of days, THEN to secure the lid and let the airlock take over after things have started to settle down. At least that's how I took it.

I'll likely NOT do that again and instead just run a blowoff tube into the water bottle like I'm doing now.

I didn't think that taking the lid off for 15 or 20 min would be that big of a deal.

'ppreciate it.

 

[steinsato]

No, taking the lid off shouldn't be too bad. But like 2nd poster said, leaving the lid cracked for any length of time doesn't make any sense. Just a good way to infect your beer.

 

[TipsyDragon]

your LHBS guy's advice isn't bad. it will prevent the fermentation from blowing the airlock out of the bucket. imagine if that foam that came out of the bucket came out the airlock. it would clog and eventually pop out and possibly spray beer everywhere. this doesn't always happen but it does happen. most people on here favor the blowoff tube method you where thinking of.

 

[TipsyDragon]

Just a good way to infect your beer.

as long as you put the lid back on before fermentation dies down to much, like the LBHS guys suggested, all the CO2 flooding out would keep anything from getting back in.

 

[ganu]

Good, all of this sounds a bit reassuring. Yeah, I did put the lid back on after cleaning it and WELL before fermentation ended (still rocking on right now).

And that deal with airlock problems, I was also having a time keeping the foam from purging all of my water out of my lock. With no way to CONSTANTLY check my water level in my airlock, I just decided to remove the lock and insert a sanitized blowoff tube. Didn't remove the lid then, just that one time.

I'm assuming that all will be well.

..... it's still a bit fascinating watching it all work.