I brewed up a lambic last weekend and and put it in my brand new bucket with Wyeast Lambic blend for a 6 month primary. Now I can’t get the lid to seal. Is this going to be an issue. It seems like it wouldn’t be for three weeks or so with a normal beer but I’m worried it will be a problem for a long primary.
What are my options? I’m going to buy another lid today without the slots cut on the side to see if it will seal. If that doesn’t work should I rack to a carboy now while it’s actively fermenting or wait a few weeks until it settles down or just keep it in the bucket with the leaking lid. I don’t want to wait 6 months to find out I screwed this up.
Kris
Rack to a carboy after a couple weeks in primary and then do your six months.
As long as there’s fairly active fermentation going on, your bucket will be fine as the positive pressure from the fermentation will keep everything going “out”, leaky lid an all. Once the fermentation has settled down a bit, you’ll probably want to go ahead an rack to carboy for the remainder of the time.
Kris,
I would wait until after active fermentation has ceased to transfer to a carboy (with lambic blend, it’s around 3-4 weeks). If you leave a beer like that in a plastic bucket, oxygen exposure becomes a real concern - the last thing you want is a vinegar bomb when you put this much time into it. I have had good success with a 4 week primary in plastic, then transferring to glass carboys and waiting for a year or more.
-Amanda
Try the new lid first. If it still doesn’t seal, rack it and throw the bucket away (or use it to store gear).
why would you throw the bucket away? I have all kind of buckets with poorly sealing lids. It’s just not that big a deal. Maybe not good for long term ageing but plastic is not great for that anyway.
sounds like a perfectly usable primary fermenter to me. It’s been hit with bugs so mark it as sours only but no reason to retire it.
I think it is quite possible to remediate a bugged bucket. Submerge it in near 170-190F water for 20-30 minutes. I use my brew kettle. Let cool in water- if you try to lift it out full of the very hot water it will form cracks in the bottom.
I wouldn’t store any beer in a bucket for 6 weeks, let alone 6 months!
That’s what I was thinkin.
Trying it now - kind of a “Homebrew Horny Tank”. So far, so good!
I have some buckets of lager lagering in one of my chest freezers. Since the chamber is full of co2 from the primary I’m not too worried about oxidation.
The most frequent times I have lost beer it has been due to acetobacter infections in buckets or in plastic fermentors (you don’t want to know what it is like to pop the lid on a 10 bbl plastic conical fermentor and witness an acetobacter infection once, let alone twice). It may be a climate issue, some of you may not have problems with it, but it has happened to me enough times that I try to get beer out of plastic as soon as possible.