Ok, so it’s not a complete emergency… but it’s still a minor emergency…
I have a couple of brews in the secondary fermenters, and decided, that since the wife and kids are away for Christmas, that I’ll brew a 3rd batch while they are away. And then I realized, I only have two air locks :o
Can I take off one air lock (the brew still has 3 weeks in the secondary, the other just in tonight) and seal the carboy with some press ‘n’ seal, or do I have to use the air lock?
What are you brewing for your 3rd batch? That’s likely the beer I’d just cover with foil and leave the air locks where they are. Don’t sweat this at all.
Do you have a black rubber cork that’ll fit the hole snuggly, a small diameter 3/8 maybe an a soda bottle. Drill a hole in the cork shove the hose into it, tie the soda bottle that has water in it to the carboy, temporary air lock
A bunch of older recipes and instructions call for transferring to secondary. The prime reason is to prevent off flavors from yeast autolysis (dying and repturing) but that usually takes a long time to start happening. Most Ale and lager yeasts will be totally good to go plenty long enough to not need to be racked. I look at the need for a secondary fermenter being more useful if you are going to do a second fermentation, such as adding fruit.
In my opinion, based on experience, people do more harm than good by following those old instructions and racking the beer off the yeast before it’s done. Look at it this way. We need the yeast to finish their job. Why fire most them when they are only half done. Not to mention the oxygen that usually gets introduced by doing so… by racking to secondary we really just decrease the chance of fully fermenting the beer and increase the risk of it staling quicker.
Plus it’s less work and the less you fuss with it the less you risk introducing contamination
A friend is lending me a third airlock, so I’m good.
I’ve never brewed this much beer before, we just moved, and I’m into turbo mode now! I’m averaging two batches a month (while balancing work, a 2.5yr old, an 8 month old, and a wife!!!) but recently the brews have been longer aging winter beers.
So, would you dry hop in the primary as well? I’m in the middle of a couple of brews I ordered from Budweiser… I mean Northern Brewer, which one is the oak aged bourbon porter, the other is the Belgian Tripel IPA (wife’s birthday brew). Both have been racked to the secondary. But the one I’m doing tomorrow, you figure to leave it in the primary for 6 weeks (or so), until I bottle?
Cap the oldest beer with sanitized foil and a tight rubber band for limiting O2 ingress. That will be good for a couple weeks, anyway. Then bottle or keg.