Although I'm a very new member here, from my poking around in the archives it seems that a common question arises time and time again - that is: "why is my airlock not bubbling?".
Now, assuming fermentation is taking place, the answer is obvious - there's a gas leak somewhere.
In my experience, this is the only problem that seems to occur readily with the Coopers' fermenter: the seal around the lid is a little bit dicky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As a consequence, I've had many a brew that ferments just fine - yet results in zero airlock activity. Now, I'm one of those people who loves to hear the "bloop!" of the airlock, so I'd prefer not to employ the gladwrap method to protect my brew. Hence, the only solution was to track down the leak.
I've heard of people using soapy water to locate the leak. Yes, this works - however, by observation I've found an easier method.
As we all know, fermentation results in condensation to form on the lid of the fermenter. Now, ordinarily this is limited to the top of the lid. However, if there is a leak, this condensation will also occur past the seal and through the area that's leaking, and right down the side of the lid. If the seal is leaking, you'll get something like this:
So, simply by checking the lid it's easy to track down some leaks and then to seal them.
Apologies if this has been covered before, however as I said I'm just a newbie at this brewing game. I figured that if this observation was useful to my brewing, it might be just as helpful to another brewer who is trying to seal a leaky fermenter.
