Fermenter Seals

[grandarcmaster]

Ive had a look around and I cant seem to find any answers to my question but I hope im not asking a stupid question.

But recently ive purchased 2 second hand fermenters to increase my brewing. But when I was giving them a clean the other day I noticed the water in the fermenter was leaking out through the seals. Both fermenters have new seals. I tried the same thing with my brand new brewcraft fermenter and no water leaked through.

My question is, will this affect fermentation in any way? Increase chances of infection? Or will this all be ok?

Thanks in advance.

[SpillsMostOfIt]

If you are talking about the rubber ring that forms a seal between the fermenter and the lid, you have a variety of options.

You can do a little work to find out how hard you need to tighten the lid to get it to seal.

You can accept that there is a leak and that the fermentation will push air out through the lid or the airlock and everything will be okay.

You can throw the lid out and seal the fermenter with cling wrap and the rubber ring, thus saving you a bunch of cleaning, the cost of airlocks and some other things that don't occur to me right now... and you get to watch.

..and others as will become apparent in subsequent posts...

HTH...

[Longrasser]

I have one of my tubs starting to act up as well

I think as Spillsmostofit says the cling wrap option is the the best one using the rubber ring from the lid to hold the cling wrap on.

[rodman]

The lid seals (I'm assuming you mean those) could be leaking for a number of reasons:

• Lid not on tight enough. I use a 24" piece of 2"x1" timber. Fits the lugs in the top of most fermenters and gives you the leverage to just 'nip down' the top for an airtight seal.
  
  Water in the screw threads of the lid will drain out, down the sides of the fermenter. However the seal is sealing just fine. The seal is 'before' the threads (CO2-wise) and the remnant wash/brew water in the threads drains out via gravity.
  
  If you remove the seal from the lid and leave to soak in a cleaner solution in the fermenter, the seal will absorb water. The seal will be hard to fit due to swelling and will also expell water from the seal when the lid is screwed down tight. Best to take the seal out after 2 days, dry it off and leave to dry out somewhere out of the sun and that is dry. (I just sit mine on top of the empty fermenter.)

Hope this helps.
Cheers!

[illywhacker]

glad wrap peoples - quick question.

how does the air escape without an airlock?

[Chris]

around the outside of the plastic- where the rubber band holds it on.

[tarlox]

When using the glad wrap, you don't get the burp of an airlock (which so many people on here seem to like), but you get a really nice dome in the glad wrap that lets you know fermentation is happening. Also, it is amazing how much more you can see going on inside the fermenter when you use glad wrap. ie formation and dissipation of krausen etc. I wont be going back to airlocks.

[morgs]

glad wrap peoples - quick question.

how does the air escape without an airlock?

I am under the impression that glad wrap is not totally air tight. Tiny holes let the gas escape in the same way as a ballon eventually goes flat.
Anyhow big disadvantage of glad wrap is the minimum level of protection from falling objects which is why i shy away from.

[Longrasser]

Anyhow big disadvantage of glad wrap is the minimum level of protection from falling objects which is why i shy away from.

To be fair there are varying qualities of the stuff available
I think if you stuck to the brand Glad you shouldnt have too many worries
Some of the generic stuff is dodgy

[SpillsMostOfIt]

The positive (albeit low) pressure created by the fermentation will keep any airborne molecular things out. Unless you use something like black, stretchy dam barrier plastic, things like cats will find their way in. I have no solution for falling aeroplanes.

As a rule of thumb, I would try to position the fermenter such that things were unlikely to fall into it.

[tarlox]

yes i learned the hard way when once leaving the fermenter on the cold garage concrete floor to keep the temp down. My 2 year old found the glad wrap irresistible and poked a heap of finger holes in it when i had my back turned for a second.

[lethaldog]

The positive (albeit low) pressure created by the fermentation will keep any airborne molecular things out. Unless you use something like black, stretchy dam barrier plastic, things like cats will find their way in. I have no solution for falling aeroplanes.

As a rule of thumb, I would try to position the fermenter such that things were unlikely to fall into it.

So brewing in indonesia is out of the question then??

[SpillsMostOfIt]

The positive (albeit low) pressure created by the fermentation will keep any airborne molecular things out. Unless you use something like black, stretchy dam barrier plastic, things like cats will find their way in. I have no solution for falling aeroplanes.

As a rule of thumb, I would try to position the fermenter such that things were unlikely to fall into it.

So brewing in indonesia is out of the question then??

Depends. Do we like Indonesian beer?

[Pale_Ale]

Glad wrap is fine. Anyone who doesn't want to use it is a sissy and doesn't live life on the edge like I do.

[Rysa]

Just put gladwrap on my second fermenter today. Works a treat, didn't put any holes in it or the other one and it's fine.
Heaps better to see what's going on.
Some like the noise of the airlock, others like to see what's going on but it is heaps easier.

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I think it gets better than that.

As I see it, five fewer things to keep clean:

Fermenter lid,
Airlock,
Grommet,
Fermenter Lid Seal,
Airlock Water,
Thing you use to keep the Airlock water in.

Oh, that's six... Well, even better.

And, there are a bunch of brewers in Queensland who are suffering from a mystery infection at the moment - poor bastards have lost hundreds of litres of otherwise fantastic beer. If you've got less to keep clean, you can spend more time/effort/thermonuclear devices on the stuff you *are* using.

[Trough Lolly]

The positive (albeit low) pressure created by the fermentation will keep any airborne molecular things out. Unless you use something like black, stretchy dam barrier plastic, things like cats will find their way in. I have no solution for falling aeroplanes.

As a rule of thumb, I would try to position the fermenter such that things were unlikely to fall into it.

So brewing in indonesia is out of the question then??

...that's gold!
You guys crack me up - time for another Garuda Golden Ale!

[Boonie]

I think it gets better than that.

As I see it, five fewer things to keep clean:

Fermenter lid,
Airlock,
Grommet,
Fermenter Lid Seal,
Airlock Water,
Thing you use to keep the Airlock water in.

Oh, that's six... Well, even better.

And, there are a bunch of brewers in Queensland who are suffering from a mystery infection at the moment - poor bastards have lost hundreds of litres of otherwise fantastic beer. If you've got less to keep clean, you can spend more time/effort/thermonuclear devices on the stuff you *are* using.

Sold me, nothing worse than when you are about to pitch and you drop the lid or airlock, or even worse, try to put the airlock on after you have put the lid on the fermenter, and subsequently pushing the grommet into the brew ............. then having to race to the Supermarket to get a spare grommet only for them not to have any, so you race to the other supermarket only to discover they are shut and you shite yourself that the brew is going to be infected......phew I'm tired from all this typing.

Is it beer'o'clock yet?

Cheers

Boonie

[Longrasser]

Depends. Do we like Indonesian beer?

You bet.


Anyone gotta Bintang clone?

And, there are a bunch of brewers in Queensland who are suffering from a mystery infection at the moment -

Id say it was probably imported into the health department