Dumb questions 101 open or closed fermentation

by **Twat** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:54 pm

Very first TPW went down yesterday ( now I have to get the pot still finished to strip it)
Spent much of the afternoon though cleaning sticky pink shit from the workbench, floor and walls. :angry-banghead:
Used roughly 4x standard TPW recipe
120 litre fermenter
21kg sugar
1 tsp citric
1kg tomato paste
1.5 red tubes of lowans bakers yeast ( don't have scales so close enough had to do)
Activated the yeast in 2 litres of warm sugar water before pitching
Aerated wash with the wife's new breville stick mixer :D
Attached lid and airlock made from grolsch bottle and plastic tube, mistake :oops:
Wholy crap it went off like nothing I have ever seen, puts beer fermenting to shame.
Cant wait to get some molasses :D
So is there consensus on what constitutes good fermenter head space or does everyone just cover but not seal for a TPW wash or have I missed someting

Cheers

by **wedwards** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:37 pm

My first one was the same - if I didn't have a lid it would have overflowed within about 15 mins of pitching the yeast. I've seen a lot of guys here ferment in food grade plastic bins and just put glad wrap over it with a pin prick in the top but that ain't my style. You could potentially try less yeast so it has a slower start especially if your sanitation is spot on, but that bakers yeast is a pure demon compared to beer yeasts!!

by **BackyardBrewer** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:39 pm

Wow thats a big batch, not a lot of citric though...I use a 1/2 a tsp of citric and I only do 22L of TPW.

I also use a tsp of Epsom salts...

by **stilly_bugger** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:55 pm

What wrote:So is there consensus on what constitutes good fermenter head space or does everyone just cover but not seal for a TPW wash or have I missed someting

No consensus, I would guess. In an 80L drum I leave about 10L head space, cover and airlock. I let washes sit for a couple of weeks to clear, so I like things to be sterile. Not that you're necessarily going to get problems, but sterilising and airlocking is a habit I've kept from beer brewing days.

by **Urrazeb** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:56 pm

Some blokes just use gladwrap mate, i reckon you'll be fine.

They say the layer of CO2 that hangs on the surface of the ferment is enough to keep nasties out, and you just need something to keep out flying shit that may want a free drink :smile:

by **ChefRo** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 9:00 pm

I ferment in open drums. Never had any dramas with infection. I think the co2 layer is enough to keep it safe. Even in an open container when the wash has finished you can't light a lighter above the wash, showing there is no oxygen.
This may not be for every one but it what works for me. I am still waiting to find a rodent in the bottom of the drum after I have ran it. But knowing me if that happened I will drink it any way.

by **crow** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:51 am

I've always found open ferments finish a tad quicker but one hassle with them is once they are finished and no longer producing co2 they are susceptible to infection and need to be ran ASAP where as airlocked ferments will keep for ages and can be ran at ya leisure . For this reason I've moved away from open ferments and will be investing in more 80 ltr (olive drum) fermenters