Air locks on buckets, are they really needed?

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banjodeano

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For the last 25 years i have been brewing beer from a kit, using the same old 5 gallon bucket with a loose fitting lid, i have never had any contamination or spoilt beer.
Now looking about, it seems to be standard practise to have a bucket with a tight fitting lid and air lock, when i first started, airlocks were just for wine making using demijohns, is it all a rather excessive?
I recall watching my dad make some beer back in the 60's, he boiled some ingredients in a bag on the stove, and then he just put it all in a bucket with a piece of muslin covering he top....
From what i recall it turned out well because he never stopped drinking it :)
 
Short answer.No.

When I first started brewing I bought a coopers starter kit and the FV doesn't have an airlock so when I bought replacement buckets I just started putting cling film on the top (I love looking in my FV's when they're fermenting) and just rest the lid on top of the cling film
 
a small rubber or silicone bung, or a short length of tape ;) an airlock is not needed but can provide a reassuring and regular glug to indicate activity and progress ;) IF your lid is a good seal, Never rely on airloack activity as a reliable indicator gravity readings are the only trusted way to monitor a brew..
 
I am on my 91st brew in three years and out of my 5 FVs only one has an airlock hole and I only ever used it once...it didn't seem to work so I never used it again! In fact because I put the FVs under my stairs and put all the reusable shopping bags we store there on top, I don't even let the lid be loose, just stick it back on and put the FV away. Some beers have domed the lid, but it has never affected the beer. In fact for a time I had to stack one beer on top of another when fermenting and nothing untoward happened.
 
For the last 25 years i have been brewing beer from a kit, using the same old 5 gallon bucket with a loose fitting lid, i have never had any contamination or spoilt beer.
Now looking about, it seems to be standard practise to have a bucket with a tight fitting lid and air lock, when i first started, airlocks were just for wine making using demijohns, is it all a rather excessive?
I recall watching my dad make some beer back in the 60's, he boiled some ingredients in a bag on the stove, and then he just put it all in a bucket with a piece of muslin covering he top....
From what i recall it turned out well because he never stopped drinking it :)

if you do high gravity beers and theres no way to let the pressure out you could be in for a mess. covering the top to keep bugs out is important as is letting excess pressure escape. so a tightly sealed fv with a high gravity beer and no way to let excess co2 escape i don't recommend. if you do high ag beers a blow off tube is recommend anyways.

Finally the yeast you use plays a big part. some are better behaved than others ...

safale abbey aka be-256 :-( MJ belgian :-)
 
A while back I would brew with a bucket and loose fitting lid. But when fermentation slowed (3-4 days) it was transferred to a closed vessel with an air-lock. This follows the practice used in some breweries, called "dropping".

Modern HB practices dispense with the time consuming transfer and just keep everything in the "primary" fermenter with an airlock. And that's what I do now. I don't fit an air-lock until the main fermentation is done though.

Keeping a blanket of CO2 keeps dissolved CO2 in the beer (priming will put it back, and more, anyway) but more importantly keeps O2 from dissolving in the beer (potentially very bad). Keeps bugs out too.

Years ago an argument for "open" fermenters was that closed ones would cause the yeast to mutate. But as few of us re-pitch used yeast it's not really an argument any longer.
 
When moving the FV or waiting for it to cool down I fold up a square of toilet paper and celotape it over the hole in the lid of the FV, I also do the same when I'm bottling so it can let a very small amount of air in the FV and it's not sucking the water in the airlock into the FV. However, I do like hearing the airlock bubbling, because of that I still use the old S shaped one, nothing more comforting than sitting in the kitchen cruising the forum with a blub-blub every minute or two.
 
must admit the loss of the reassuring glug in the background was the only pitfall of switching to a brewfridge, even with an airlock on the fv the closed door swallows the sound.
 
You could put a blue tooth microphone in the brewfridge and link it to the device of your choice. Reassuring 'glug' wherever you are. Might replace whale song as a way to get to sleep.....
 
You could put a blue tooth microphone in the brewfridge and link it to the device of your choice. Reassuring 'glug' wherever you are. Might replace whale song as a way to get to sleep.....

Don't MM, the kids caught me with it recorded on my phone, I took a lot of stick for that. I just don'k know why but HBing brings out the anorak in me, I gave up trying to fight it long ago.
 
I always use air locks and I use a glass carboy when making stouts as sometimes the ferment is very lively and I use a blow of tube to stop a mess.
 

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