Secondary Fermentation: Demi-john vs Airlock Bottle (Advice Needed)

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FermentFriend

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Hi Folks,

I'm new to the forum & it's a delight to read like-minded heads here - look forward to some lively discourse. šŸ˜Š

I've a question about secondary fermentation & would really appreciate any feedback you may be able to offer please.

I have been successfully making my own tepache for over a year.
Secondary fermentation has always yielded excellent results by straining/filtering liquid contents of my 5l Kleiner vessel into 1 litre airlock bottles & burping daily for a week + before bottling for consumption.

I'd like to avoid the use of having to burp umpteen 1litre bottles as I'm making larger batches now & recently experimented w/ a 5 litre glass demijohn for the first time (phots attached).
I added approx 4 litres to the demijohn & half-filled the airlock device with water & put it in the rubber bung & pushed it down.

Within a day or two the water in the airlock began to percolate a little - not as much as I might have expected but there were "signs of activity".
I opened it up by removing the bung after Day 5 & tasted the brew - it was completely flat. No carbonation whatsoever & it tasted a bit like off-beer.

I really need this process to work for me with my tepache - is there anything obvious Im doing wrong or I need to double-check here to eliminate what appears to be my first wasted batch?
I wasn't sure how deep to push the rubber bung & can only presume air was escaping via it or the airlock device - did it perhaps not have enough water in it?
How deep should I bung the bung...?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I have 20l brewing in the shed ready for secondary fermentation very soon & hope to use at least 10l of that in my 2x 5 l glass demijohns.

Thanks a million, šŸ

Pete
 

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Of thanks - righto.

So is there a way of "carbonating" brew in a demijohn via secondary fermentation without having to burp it?

I thought the airlock might negate me having to burp it but I guess it releases more air than allows for it to get the desired level of fizz. Would more water in the airlock make a difference of the amount of air coming out or is there potentially a different type of device where I can perhaps regulate the amount of air escaping?

The brew gets pretty explosive in 1l bottles even with daily burping.

If I put a bung in a 5l demijohn w/out an airlock I'm scared of having a potentially more volatile 4.5 litres of brew that would really gush each time I burped it.

Any insights / advice greatly appreciated,

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Ok thanks - are there any alternative methods anyone might kindly suggest for carbonating bigger batches than 1l bottles?
 
I've used the 5 litre water bottles from tesco to put beer in for carbonation, and worked well. They expanded a bit but were fine under pressure.
 
There is the two and three liter dark plastic bottles that cheap cider comes in,They take a decent pressure.
Mind you will need to drink the cider firstsick...
 

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