BeerBorg

I can just fit a brew bucket into my mini fridge if I don't use an airlock. I could rig up a blow off tube. The fridge is bigger than the typical dorm fridge that I usually see.
I've got my first 5 gallon brew coming on Friday. Is it ok to ferment with just a loose lid and no blow off or airlock? Can I go for three weeks with just a loose lid on my bucket and nothing else?

Beer infecting microorganisms do not and can not "crawl up" the sides of your fermenter and go under the lid and get into your beer. They are blown around in the air and "fall down" into things.

As long as there is no way for them to "fall down into" or "blow into" your beer your probably safe. That's why the LBK/LBC lids work just fine without an airlock.

So basically it depends on how "loose" your lid is. It's probably ok, but what might be better then a loose lid is a big sheet of foil that is draped over the sides, that way a breeze can't blow stuff through the crack at the side of a thin lose lid on a bucket. LBK/LBC lids go down over the lip, so they prevent this sort of thing from happening. Only way it happens in them is if you squeeze them and let go so it sucks air in.

EDIT: If you use a lid and it has a grommet/hole for the airlock to plug into, you want to make sure that's covered. It's a place things could "fall down" into your beer.

+1

I like the idea of using aluminum foil as welll

- it is considered sterile when pulled fresh off the roll
- as mashani said, you can drape it over the sides a few inches to keep bugs from blowing in
- no bugs can fall in through it
- it doesn't seal great, where the lid can get stuck on leaving no way for CO2 to escape without blowing the lid off
- it allows the fermenter bucket to fit in your fridge
- it's easier to take a temp reading (or to peek... Don't do that!)
- you don't have to wash it when you're done
- aluminum is 100% recyclable!

I have a 3 gallon bucket I use occasionally to ferment in and it has a grommet for an airlock. I have the base of a 3-piece airlock that I got free from the LHBS because it didn't have the rest of the pieces that went with it, and usually I would stick a hose onto it that leads to a milk jug half full of star san- acting as a blow-off setup. Unfortunately, I have some steam beer lagering in the fermentation fridge, along with a lager I brewed with the washed steam beer yeast in the aforementioned bucket, but that means there is not enough room to fit the blow-off setup, so I just plugged the airlock base into the hole and then covered the top of the airlock base with aluminum foil soaked in star san. This way the CO2 can still purge the oxygen out of the bucket but bugs can't get in. This gave me enough clearance inside the ferm fridge for the bottles and the bucket.

So basically he would have an open fermenter with a sheet of foil over the top? Would that lead to easy oxygenation after primary fermentation is done (if he ferments for 3 weeks)? Reason I ask is the type of fermentation chamber I have is a cylindrical red bull refrigerator, and I can't fit an air lock on my fermenters either when I put the top of the refrigerator on. I have to thread a blow off tube through the top of the fridge top which is a pain in the rear. If I can just cover the top of my fermenters with foil that would make life a lot easier.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Bull-Refrig ... 1028205647
This is the fermentation chamber. My boss at the grocery store I worked at let me have it when they were done with it

I would just tape the air-lock hole over with duct tape. Leave the lid lose. How many times have we not have a lid tight and thought there was no activity?? I just did with this batch. As others have stated that is how the BDC/LBK work.

I think that I'm going to use a blow of tube because there is enough clearance to put a tube into the lid. The jar with Starsan in it will fit on my mini fridge door.

The foil sounds like a great option also.
I'll take a few pictures tomorrow.

yankfan9 wrote:So basically he would have an open fermenter with a sheet of foil over the top? Would that lead to easy oxygenation after primary fermentation is done (if he ferments for 3 weeks)? Reason I ask is the type of fermentation chamber I have is a cylindrical red bull refrigerator, and I can't fit an air lock on my fermenters either when I put the top of the refrigerator on. I have to thread a blow off tube through the top of the fridge top which is a pain in the rear. If I can just cover the top of my fermenters with foil that would make life a lot easier.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Bull-Refrig ... 1028205647
This is the fermentation chamber. My boss at the grocery store I worked at let me have it when they were done with it

The CO2 is heavier then air, so it should still form a blanket over the beer as long as you don't take off the foil and go moving it around or perv it or take a bunch of unnecessary gravity samples or go squeezing your bucket because you think the beer inside is the sexy. CO2 comes out of the beer after primary is over with for a while. How much stays in and how much comes out and and how fast depends on temperature and atmospheric pressure. (Henry's law / gas laws). It's the same set of laws that apply to getting CO2 into your beer when kegging, just in reverse more or less. But basically your as safe as we are when using an LBK/LBC without an airlock and 2-3 weeks of ignoring it.

You could if you wanted to put a lid with a grommet on tightly and then cover that with the foil. The grommet will still allow the gas to escape and for blowoff to get out if goes nuts, and the foil will keep bugs from falling in. That might keep a bit more CO2 in there if you move the thing or open/close the chamber door a lot.

If it has a airlock hole just put the lid on and cover the hole with a paper towel that has been sprayed with star san, should be ok

jimjohson wrote:If it has a airlock hole just put the lid on and cover the hole with a paper towel that has been sprayed with star san, should be ok

or use sterile gauze wrap or a band-aid.

Alright I'll try just putting the lid on and sticking some aluminum foil over the grommet hole next time. Thanks!

I'd cover the whole lid with foil and down the sides, grommet or not. A little bit of foil might float off under pressure.

Three of my fermenters are 12qt steel pots. Just lids, no airlocks. I'm careful not to disturb them while fermenting. I use them partly for your reason: two will fit in my 54qt cooler. No other vessel will ferment 5g in that cooler.