Anything wrong with putting a lid & airlock on primary fv?

[supercooper]

I have somehow got into the habit of putting a lid and an airlock on my primary fermenter.
But recently toured my local brewery (Skinners in Truro) and all their fv's were open.
Question is, am I doing something wrong if I put a lid and airlock on?
Tis ale i'm brewing
Happy new year

 

[iancraig]

Not that I really know what I'm talking about ... but I guess an airlock without a lid is REALLY a waste of time

Was it definitely their FVs that were open?

All the best,

Ian

 

[bobsbeer]

Some brewers do have open FV's. Some even use yeast floating in the air to ferment their brews. But the main reason people put an airlock on their brew is to keep out undesirable yeast and other nasties. You are doing nothing wrong. I do the same. Some people leave the lid off and cover with a cloth during the early stage as lots of co2 is being given off.

 

[rpt]

Using an airlock and lid is fine. Many brewers think it's the best way to avoid infection. But, as you have seen, open fermentation is traditional.

 

[guyb]

I've been brewing 20years, I've never brewed without an airlock, not a single one of my brews has ever failed - also down to cleanliness (sterility).

Some prefer buckets and a cracked open lid, others a closed fermenter.

I prefer the latter, it's never failed me yet, I've brewed kits, AG, wine, mead, stout, ginger beer, raspberryade, and some of the early high alcohol kits :thumb:

 

[Belter]

woah another person in Cornwall that brews beer. There aren't many of us. I'm in St Austell. There's about four others over on Jim's beerkit planning a meet if you're interested.

you should definitely have a lid on your fermenting vessel. Dont necessarily need an airlock bit I always do.

As far as I know Skinners do it in a positive pressure environment. No chance of anything getting in the beer. Or the air is filtered can't remember. It's not open fermenting like it used to be.

 

[Sean_Mc]

On a smaller scale in a household environment its important to stop bugs, bacteria and crap getting in our beer/wine. A lid snapped down will stop most things and the co2 produced helps too, no need for an airlock, but handy with demi johns

 

[tazuk]

one word fruit fly ????????? :thumb:

 

[rich27500]

As with most aspects of our craft there are many 'right' ways, the only wrong way is the when the beer is pants.

 

[guyb]

one word fruit fly ????????? :thumb:

+1 on that :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

A lot of professional brewers use open fermenters. They will also use a top cropping yeast that will give a certain amount of protection and will only keep it in the fermenter for a few days. A lot of home brewers seem a bit anal about protecting there fermenting wort but personally I have never used an air lock in over 30 years and never had a problem.

 

[keith1664]

Not wrong, maybe unnecessary. It's down to personal preference really. Mine is for the cracked open lid, but then mine are fermented in a fridge and the door keeps most of the flying nasties out.

 

[Moley]

one word fruit fly ????????? :thumb:

That's two words

If you want one word it's Drosophila.

For beers, none of my FV lids are drilled for airlocks and the gas pressure always finds other ways to escape. Likewise for wine musts if I'm starting them off with fresh fruits etc. in a bucket for a week or so, although they are always covered. Other wines are in DJs or other gas-tight fermenters under airlock right from the start.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

I ferment under airlock in 5g wine fermenters..... Works great for me because I can leave it for around 4 weeks if I'm short on time for kegging and bottling. :thumb:

BB

 

[Dieseljockey]

This is one of a few emotive questions that's asked from time to time. I've used airlocks....but the brew I did on Sat is now sat in the brew fridge with just the lid on loose.

 

[LeithR]

My long established approach is to ferment in a lidded bucket for approx 7 days then transfer into a closed vessel with an airlock. At this stage I usually add additional sugar and ferment for a further 7 days or so. This approach offers the opportunity to move the beer off the spent yeast.

Originally I was given to understand that fermenting under and airlock enabled the beer to reach a higher alcohol content. I suspect from reading the forum this is not actually the case and the benefit is that wild yeasts are eliminated.

This approach works for me.

 

[artyb]

I ferment under airlock in 5g wine fermenters..... Works great for me because I can leave it for around 4 weeks if I'm short on time for kegging and bottling. :thumb:

BB

+1

it only takes 2 mins to screw the lid on, :thumb:
and its all secure for weeks,
and those wine fermenters have around 6 gallon capacity so room for foam

 

[calumscott]

Think about the scale too...

The commercial operations with open fermenters are brewing a massive amount of beer and inoculate with a huge starter of yeast. The one or two nasties that might try to get in there are going to face very tough opposition to get established and spoil the beer.

In our 5 or ten gallons with pretty small, or sometimes yet to be active (dried), yeast inoculations the conditions are more favourable for the invader...

Lids and locks for me. :thumb:

 

[supercooper]

Thanks for all your posts, it seems to be down to personal preference, and since my system seems to work well for me, I'll stick with a lid and airlock.
Funnily enough, I lost a kit brew years ago to a fruit fly due to a missing lid on an fv, but that's another story.

All my fv's are same size and brand, so I now use one lid with a large hole drilled to take my immersion heater bung, which incorporates two holes, one for the cable and the other for an airlock. This lid always goes on the primary stage. For secondary stage, I rack to another identical bucket, but use a lid with a smaller hole and grommet to take just an airlock with no heater.

 

[Markus]

Glad I found this thread. Am I right in thinking that some of you use a fully sealed bucket for primary fermentation? I have a 5 gallon bucket with a lid but NO AIRLOCK. I plan on fermenting in that for a week, then switching to a secondary fermenter, that does have an airlock, for a few weeks.

Bit nervous now about airborne nasties because I got curious after a day or so and peeked into the bucket...