Acetobacter infection...or not?

Just so you know (and maybe you already know this?) an airlock is not oxygen impermeable.

If you want to age for 2 years with no oxygen ingress you need a different closure. Either a bung made of material that is not oxygen impermeable (note: rubber is oxygen permeable) or a Better Bottle dry trap closure.

Cheers!

 

Sure but I would not recommend leaving a long 2nd gas line connected to the distributor and inside your kegerator in between uses unless you kept it sealed by maybe using a flare fitting and quick disconnect screwed onto the end of it while not in use. I say this because kegerators don't stay very sanitary in my experience. When the time comes to use it for fermenter flushing, you could take the long line out of the kegerator, remove the quick disconnect, then soak a couple of feet of the line in sanitizer. Then place about 1.5 feet of the sanitized line into your carboy for the flush. Or just attach a sanitized line to your distributor (spray the distributor with starsan just prior) when you need it for flushing.

 

Will a Better Bottle dry trap fit in a glass carboy?

Cheers!

 

I've never seen one (better bottle dry trap as you call it) but I'm guessing no since better bottles have a huge opening compared to traditional glass carboys.

If this is what you mean...

http://www.homebrewing.org/Better-Bottle-Universal-Medium-Soild-Bung_p_3332.html

Then I'd say you'd want something more like an undrilled universal carboy bung for glass carboys..

http://www.homebrewing.org/Universal-Carboy-Bung-Solid-Stopper_p_1388.html

 

Nope, this:http://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Homebrewing-and-Winemaking-Supplies/dp/B0064ODQQG

Along with this: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Bottle..._indust_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0BJ8V9EET1Z6PMAHMY82

Cheers!

 

Expensive but cool!

 

Yup, but if an individual ages a beer for multiple years (e.g., 2 years) there is quite an investment there.

Cheers!

 

What material are the bungs made from?

Cheers!

 

I would recommend that you go to the Better Bottle website technical tab and then click on permeability and download a white paper entitled “Measurement of Oxygen Transfer Rates for Carboy Closures and Air Locks”.

In the back of this paper in Table 1 is a list of plastic materials with their associated O2 Permeability Coefficient values; the lower the value the better the material is in resisting oxygen permeation. The ‘best’ plastic material is highly crystalline PET.

Cheers!

http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html

 

I notice you mention/recommend this dry trap closure a lot. Have you actually used one? If so, what differences have you noticed in your beer, compared to other closures?

 

I do not do long term bulk aging of beer so I do not personally own a Better Bottle Dry Trap.

Cheers!