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svyturys wrote:I am now ready to bottle my next two brews. Neither had ANY airlock action yet they appear healthy and well. I tested for leakage and there does not appear to be any, whatsoever. maybe the clingwrap guys are right. The entire lid and airlock thing is just a nuisance and a bit of a distraction.
Cheers
Svyturys

Yup, forget about airlocks. Use Gladwrap, and see what's happening. If you wish to be a worrier or get anally retentive about your brew (none of us blokes would be, but there might be a closet metrosexual brewer somewhere), do a hydro test after about a week.

Warra,
ALL new brewers are anally retentive. ...(sighing while wondering how to make as much money as a metrosexual who can afford Euro beers and who would never have thought of homebrew in the first place mainly cos his apartment doesn't even have a kitchen.)
Could you give us a link to the "Gladwrap" discussion? I know it's somewhere cos I read it.
Gladwrap, rubber band from the lid and is there a pinhole involved in the process?
I'm willing to give it a try as I've bought a third fermenter...so experimentation shouldn't be a problem.
Cheers

I'm not sure there is a specific Gladwrap thread.
It seems to have been discussed at various points, but perhaps not directly as an issue on its own.

Anyway, you've got it correct.

Use Gladwrap across the top of your fermenter. Ease the rubber band out of the lid of your fermenter, and use that to fully secure the Gladwrap.

Some say you need a pinhole, but I never use one, and the CO² seems to have no problem finding it's own way out. Logically that must be so, as the rubber band does not give you the same quality seal as it does in situ inside the lid of the fermenter.
And, lets face it, even with the rubber band in place in the fermenter lid, it often doesn't give a good seal. You only have to look at the number of queries about the lack of bubbling in airlocks etc.

For the truly obsessed (such as I ) you can also observe the active ferment and watch all the bubbles making their way up to the surface of the wort! I can't afford carboys - and to be honest, I couldn't be stuffed working with a vessel that has such a small choke point at the top, so this is a nice compromise.

Cheers,
TL

Yeah I have always wondered why the Yanks have this love affair with carboys. They would be real mongrel things to clean especially krausen deep down below the neck.

Long time no post, but just my 2 cents worth. I'd rather drop a plastic fermenter then a glass one, I've read some stories of the injuries that have come from dropping them.

Phil

.....I love reading articles describing the fountain effect some hop plugs and trub have when they finally succumb to the CO2 backpressure!