2010
Home Brewing: Which Airlock is Better? One-Piece, Two-Piece, or Three-Piece Airlock
Which airlock is the best to use when home brewing? I wondered about this, so I decided to do a little research to see if one worked better than another, and what the pro’s and con’s were for the one, two and tree piece airlocks.
What is an Airlock?
An airlock is nothing more than a little plastic device that is used in making fermented beverages, like beer, wine, cider, etc. The airlock works by allowing carbon dioxide to escape from the fermenter without letting any new air into it. Since the airlock does not allow any air into the fermenter, this helps cut down on any possible bacteria contamination getting into your beer, or wine, or whatever it is that you might be fermenting.
The airlocks come in a variety of different styles and shapes, but all use the same basic principal, of having a liquid chamber that acts as a contamination barrier and also allows the carbon dioxide gasses to escape through it.
Which Airlock is the Best?
After trying all of these different types of airlocks, it was pretty easy to come to the conclusion that they all work pretty much the same. Although the look of the airlocks varies, they all do the same thing, and one didn’t seem to work any better or worse than any of the others.
So on a performance level, all airlocks perform completely equal.
However, I did notice a few Pro’s and Con’s for the different airlocks that might help sway your decision when buying your next airlock.
The one piece airlock is very convenient because you don’t have to worry about losing any extra parts that go with it. Its just one piece that you fill up with water and put a cap on. Very easy to use, but cleaning it is a bit of a pain. Because of the S shaped design, it is very difficult to clean out the middle chamber. All that you can really do is slosh some cleaning solution around inside of it and run water through it until it seems clean.
The two and tree-piece airlock come apart, and do not have any weird shapes to them which make them much easier to clean out.
So in the end, all the airlocks perform exactly the same, and they all cost pretty much the same ($1). The one-piece airlocks are easy because they are just one piece and you don’t have to worry about losing any other extra parts. But they are a pain to clean out. And the two and three-piece airlocks you have to worry about a couple more pieces, but they are much easier to clean out. Most home brewers are more worried about cleanliness, and not getting any bacteria into the beer, so I would recommend the two or three-piece airlock. I personally prefer the three-piece because all the piece come apart easily and you can get to all surfaces of the airlock to make sure that it is thoroughly cleaned before using again.
Buy Home Brewing Airlocks
2010
Home Brewing – Problem with Airlock, Beer Bubbling into Airlock, Fermeter Overflowing
So I started my second batch of beer this week. This time it wasn’t a kit with all the ingredients together in a box. I went to my local home brew shop to buy all the ingredients that were needed for a recipe that I got out of a home brewing book. I followed the direction perfectly and everything seemed to be going great.
About 2 days into the fermenting process I noticed that the beer in the fermenter had started bubbling up so high that it was coming up through the airlock. This was causing some problems because it started to clock the airlock and get lots of pressure build up in the fermenter. (The picture to the right shows what I am talking about)
So I took the airlock off, cleaned it out. Opened the fermenter up, and gently brushed some up the bubbles around to help the settle a bit, then put the lid back on with a clean airlock in place. This seemed to work fine for another day or two then the same problem happened again!
So I cleaned the airlock again, and settled the bubbles down in the fermenter. After that it never happened again. But for those couple days it was making a mess.
Does anyone know why this happens? Was my beer level too high in the fermenter bucket? Is it because of the type of yeast, or ingredients that I used in the recipe?
The recipe was for a Honey Ginger Ale. Called for about 2lbs of honey, that was the only thing out of the ordinary that I used. Could this cause the beer to foam up that much?
It was also my first time using one of those activator yeast packets. It seemed to be much more active in the beer than the dry yeast that you sprinkle in. Is it the yeast that can cause it to bubble this much?
If anyone has some answers to how I can avoid this for future batches I would really appreciate it. Post a comment below if you have any ideas!
2010
Home Brewing, Answers to Why Airlock Stopped Bubbling After a Day
Alright, if you read my recent post you will have seen that the airlock on my fermenter was bubbling great for about a day straight, then seemed to stop completely. After much worrying, and thinking that I lost the batch of beer, here is the answer why!
I have been in contact with brewcraft a little about this. They said its nothing to worry about, the beer will turn out 100% OK!!! As for the airlock not bubbling, these plastic buckets don’t have the best seals on them. At first glance it would seem that the bucket is sealed fine, because when you push down slightly on the lid, of the fermenter, the air pressure in the bucket rises a little causing the water level in the airlock to move a little.
The way I figured out that there was a very slow leak was when I pushed down the lid a little, the water in the air lock moved a bit, and I held the lid down in that positions without moving for about 10 seconds. I noticed that the water level in the airlock started to balance itself out again. If there was a perfectly tight seal and no air leeks, the water level in the airlock should have stayed exactly where it was while pushing down on the lid. It adjusted itself because of the loss of pressure in the fermenter.
I hope this helps with anyone else home brewing. In the end, it doesn’t sound like it is anything to worry about though, and your beer should be just fine!