Airlocks on beer

[devexwarrior]

I've always used an airlock on wine and TC brews in demijohns but never bothered with one on a beer FV. I see that some brewers use them, though I can't think of a time when a brew has gone off after the fermentation has started. Am I missing something obvious? I only brew kits so that might be a factor

 

[Rwilts]

20 kits + in last year and no airlocks - Happy

 

[PD]

air locks are not normaly needed on beer making as theres so much gas given off it protects the surface of your beers, a loose fitting lid is all thats required to stop thinks jumping/diving/falling in.
If the ferment is vigorous just loosen a corner of the lid...if its violent get a blow tube fitted via an air lock.

If you have a few lids with holes for air locks you can just bung it up with a paper towel or similar.

 

[calumscott]

The theory is *exactly* the same as it is for wine. Airlocks are there to provide an exit-only fermentation environment.

The practise however is a bit different as our beer fermenters tend not to seal (unless you get Rob's awesome 30l ones) and the airlock becomes pretty redundant - if you don't have a seal, what's the point in locking...?

So if you can achieve a completely isolated fermentation environment, then all the advantages of airlocking are there to be had, if not they are somewhat negated.

 

[Papa G]

Hi, 2 brews in, I use an air lock but never get any bubbles, lid is not air tight but brews are fine. If there's a hole for an air lock may as well put it on.

 

[brewtim]

A sealed lid under airlock might be useful if there are lots of flying things around such as thunderbugs and fruit flies, a fruit fly got into mine in the middle of Nov, they can smell a sweet fermenting wort a mile away, having said that I don't think a fruit fly or two will do much harm to 23 litres of beer.

Traditional English brewing is in open fermenters anyway, Yorkshire Square for example, it might be preferable to open ferment to recreate some styles and flavours if you are using the correct yeast as I would have thought the strain will be conditioned for open fermenting. :hmm:

It also makes it easier for top cropping and skimming.

 

[Fil]

i like the reassuring glug of an airlock on my buckets n jerrycans with beer.. shame i cant hear em when closed in the brewfridge tho ;(.

 

[Vossy1]

I use blow off tubes exclusively and my fv cupboard sounds like a grandfather clock :lol:

 

[airymary]

I open ferment in primary FVs, then rack to secondaries under lock, due to the much reduced rate of CO2 production by that stage. Even so, I did once get acetobacter infection in 2 secondaries
Cheers, Chris