BeerBorg

Hey guys! I just got a 2 gallon beer kit from BrewDemon, and I’m having issues with the airlock. It will bubble around 3-4 times, stop, then the water will act like it’s leveling back out. I checked the seal around the airlock with some distilled water, and no bubbles. This tells me there aren’t any leaks around the stopper or the airlock, so that must mean it’s coming from the lid. I do have a white seal in the top of the lid, and I’ve tightened it with every ounce of strength I can muster, but it’s not doing anything to fix the problem. What should I do? Thanks for the help.

UPDATE: I seemed to have gotten the problem fixed. I’m not sure how exactly, but now my airlock is working fine. Anyways, if you guys have any ideas on how to fix this issue, please feel free to share. I’m sure someone out there could use the advice. Thanks guys!

I started brewing with the Mr Beer LBK. It didn't even have ab airlock and relied on co2 being heavier than o2.

When I started brewing 5 gallon batches, I used buckets with airlocks. Sometimes the airlocks bubble and sometimes they don't. Sometimes when they do, depending on yeast, temperature, etc, it might take awhile for the bubbles to start. I never worry about it.

I agree that this is not a cause for worry. Bubbles tend to come in bursts, especially early in the ferment.

Airlocks are overrated. I still am using fermenters that don't require airlocks and just vent. Bubbling or not, your still making beer. You can't use visible bubbling to determine if it's done or not anyways.

As others already said, nothing to worry about. The bubbles are fun to watch with active fermentation, but you are still making beer with no bubbles no less.

I would like to revisit this. The original question was not answered. It wasn't about the bubbles, it was about the pressure build up, or lack there of, in the fermentation chamber. When using an airlock you can visually see the pressure in the fermentation vessel because the liquid would be in the 2nd bubble when the fermenter pressure is higher than the ambient.

The reason I bring this up again is that before the weekend my airlock had all the liquid in the 2nd bubble, but now it is starting to equalize. It is still higher pressure inside the fermentation vessel than outside so I am not worried, yet. The temperature has dropped form 70 to 68 for several days due to the weather, which might be why the pressure change.

Is this pressure equalization something to be worried about?

How does the barometric pressure impact a Brew Demon? The weather in Minnesota is changing (what happened to the summer???).

A rapid change in external pressure or ambient temperature will cause the internal pressure to change to try to reach a state of "equilibrium" as such (not necessarily equal but more like "finding the same state of balance") as defined by the gas laws. If you want to do gas-law math you can figure out how much CO2 will come out of or be absorbed into solution assuming your fermentation is complete and your yeast aren't producing more CO2 based on the air pressure and ambient temperature. But you would also need to know just how much pressurization can actually happen in your setup to do that math, which may be nearly impossible to figure with your kind of setup. Airlocks do not permanently "hold pressure" it is not a true pressurized fermenter. There is only really pressure during vigorous fermentation. Although CO2 bubbles out of solution once primary is complete it is not going to be "held" in as any significant pressure at that point.

In any case such a rapid change with an airlock this can cause the liquid to get sucked in in the worst case scenario. But that usually requires a very rapid change. This would be in theory the reason to use vodka or star-san or something else that can't harbor bacteria as your airlock solution. Normally in real life this only happens to people who cold crash rapidly, or maybe if you get hit by a crazy storm front. The thing is that it really is "in theory" and it's really not worth spending time worrying about it as a general rule of thumb, even if that does happen it is unlikely anything bad will occur.

Some of the best beer in the world has the primary fermentation occur in totally open fermenters. As I said before airlocks are overrated. Plenty of other things are vastly more important like proper sanitation and pitching enough yeast and maintaining proper fermentation temperatures.