Air lock sanitation

[NYSBrewer]

What are some of you using in you buckets in your air locks to keep it sanitized. I have been using iodophor, and 5-star sanitizers in the water, but once fermentation starts, it seems the solution is clear by the next day. I add another squirt to revive it, but again gone in a day. Seems like a waste to me, is there a danger to using just water to save on chemicals. I only fill the bucket with enough solution so my tube is just under the surface, maybe an inch, so there is no danger of any water or solution being sucked into my fermenters. Any ideas?

[Jephro]

I normally don't worry about it too much, allthough i guess i do normally dip a pitcher of sani from my sink and add it to the bucket (just because i like to sleep well). More often than not i come in to find the krausen has blown out the CIP, overflowed my bucket and made a mess all over my floor.

I have never seen a blowoff bucket get sucked all the way up the CIP. I guess its possible, maybe if you start a gravity transfer and still have your full bucket there with the CIP arm open, but a brewer that absent minded would probably have bigger problems to deal with.

[pbutlert]

I put a hose in the 5 gal buckets I use and leave it at a slow trickle when they are foaming over; we netted almost 20 gals. more beer this way having a little more head pressure than you get when a bucket is empty of water and full of foam. When they slow down, we "bartender" a little bleach into the buckets.....also helps to keep the floors clean.

[beertje46]

We use iodophor that was used to sani the unitank. I fill a five gallon bucket as I drain the tank prior to hot rinsing. I used water only in the past and only use the iodophor now to minimize wasting it down a drain. It does turn clear but by then you gas positive so no biggie.

[NYSBrewer]

Thanks y'all. Many said things I was thinking anyway, but again, sleeping better always helps. We need all the sleep we can get. It is amazing some of the things I find myself thinking about at three in the morning, staring at my ceiling.

cheers!!

[beertje46]

It is amazing some of the things I find myself thinking about at three in the morning, staring at my ceiling.

cheers!!

You and me both and 100's of other brewers I'm sure.

[Jephro]

Fermcap

This got me thinking about the thread on Fermcap.. http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/s...hlight=fermcap
I use it pre-boil, and have put a dash in the bucket to control foam, but i know sometimes i loose a 1/2-1 BBL of beer on the floor. How many people now use it post-boil to control krasuen in FV. If it works, how much do you use, when and how do you add it?

[jarviw]

here's the link for
FermCap Data Sheet

I use it both in the kettle and in the FV.
If you are really worried, mix it with hot water and dose into the fermenter.
I think dosing in the kettle/WP probably will result fairly little amount into the FV, since it is supposed to settle/stick to any surfaces.

[lhall]

We use it in the FV, just mix it with some hot water and add to the top of the FV through the PRV. It lets us fill the fermenter with more beer, and also makes cleaning the FV easier later since most of the krausen is concentrated in a tight ring on the walls, instead of all over the top of the FV. But we only use it in beers that we will be filtering later. I don't know what effect the Fermcap would have on head retention in an unfiltered beer.

[Buckley]

From what I have read on it in the past and talking with a BSG rep. The properties that lower foaming should "ferment out" leaving the beer with the ability to produce head later. I have yet to try this theory. I just use it at the start of boil.