No airlock activity question from a noob

When it's cooling off, negative pressure draws air in from the outside. I like to place a sanitized type of paper over the airlock hole.. it acts like a filter and should help you keep a sanitary wort until the next day. I once left the airlock in place while it cooled and it pulled water in. Luckily it was boiled/cooled water in a sanitized airlock.

 

Not really...that's what an air lock (filled and refilled with vodka if you are old-school) is for...The faster you cool your wort to pitching temp, the more cold-break...a good thing if looking for shelf-life and appearance...otherwise use the Australian method....party all night and pitch in the morning

 

Not sure what you are talking about. If wort cools from 80 to 60 in a closed fermentor with an airlock, it will pull in your vodka. Try putting hot water in a half-full mason jar, close it tightly, and open it when it cools. Air will get sucked in. Same concept.

 

Well, for one example as regards the temperature aspect the 'back in the day' German Brewers would produce beer during the cooler months (e.g., November - March) and did not brew during the 'hot' months. I really do not know what they did as regards sanitation but I suspect they were clever breweries in that regard as well?

Cheers!

 

You said "air"...I said "vodka"...unless you let the air lock go dry.

 

Ok, maybe talking about the same thing in different ways!
However, I keep the airlock off if I happen to have the wort cooling in the fermentor, and put on that filter I mentioned above. Just eases my mind.
And yeah, cold break is good.

 

You can likely find one cheaper. I paid <$16 at an aquarium supply store for one that caps out at 158gph under ideal conditions, it's barely adequate for my 25' immersion chiller and I'll get one with more oomph when I go to a 50' chiller.....maybe this one on Ebay ($33) or this one from Home Depot ($39). They ship to the store for free pickup if out of stock.

 

Ive got to say that ive used us5 at 80 without any off flavors but it wasnt intentional. As vikeman said it is a super forgiving yeast strain. Also i had a bucket lid blow off one night (it landed 10’ away and made a mess in the process. The beer was open fermenting for hours and turned out fine. Point is dont worry about popping the lid off during high krausen

 

I have a small fountain pump that I use to pump ice water through my immersion chiller.

 

If chilling, S-shaped airlocks are your friend. Always put one on if cooling faster than 5 degrees at a time (especially lagering)

 

With S airlocks, you pick your poison. The reason they tend to not suck back liquids is that they allow more air through.

 

True which is why I try to slow decline if I can. But when you can't (I tend to forget to plan for cold crashing!) I'd rather let some air in versus adding starsan, water, or vodka in. And if they run dry your adding air anyway.

 

"Sours" we're likely a lot more common, intentional or not. The Steele book on IPAs suggested that mixed fermentations were likely an end product of unrefined brewing practice. Watching for "foxing", reddish tinged foam forming on spoiling wort or fermenting beer was employed at pre-industrial breweries. So.......

 

Frozen bottles of water are your friend....stock up. Which pump did you get off Amazon?