Airlock

[WillG3]

I could well be making a mountain out of a mole hill but its my first time brewing so...

I have a airlock of the 3 bobbles each side variety which i half filled so that one and a half were filled each side. I used vodka as i was told this would offer more protection from nastys than plain water.

However, rather than allowing bubbles through (or at least i haven't observed any going through although i dunno how frequent they should be) the entire liquid seems to be being pushed out by the gas so that now no bobble are filled on one side and 3 are filled on the other.

Is this normal? or does it indicate a fundemental flaw which im missing?

 

[Muddydisco]

Nope thats how the airlock works :thumb: now all the fluid is over one side as the gas pushes past the last bit at the bottom of the U bend escaping gases will bubble up through the liquid

 

[WillG3]

lovely, cheers man. I'm totally new to this and made the mistake of telling all my mates about my project. theres alot of pressure to get it right :lol:

 

[Moley]

What are you making, what volume, and what kind of fermenter is it in?

You've probably overfilled the airlock just slightly and only need to fill the bottom bobble on each side, but any excess is just going to get blown out.

I don't use that type of airlock because I find them too noisy and the tubular traps are much quieter. How much this bothers you rather depends upon how many you've got working at any one time. One trap giving a bubble every couple of seconds might be quite pleasant but if you've got an array of them they can become intrusive.

Bubble rate depends on volume of brew and can vary according to what that brew is. My tubular traps give around three pops for every one of your bloops, but on a 3-4 gallon working wine I would expect at least one pop per second. If your airlock isn't popping or blooping then the gas is getting out some other way. That is quite possible or even normal with fermenting buckets but if you're using a demijohn or screw topped fermenter then you should check your seals or make sure the bung is pushed in far enough.