What are your thoughts on gamma seal lids? They fit the common bucket sizes, and are said to be air-tight. That’s what turns me on about them.
I can see a one-inch hole in the middle of the top for the airlock, or in one of the four “below sea level” areas…
I use these all the times - for grain storage. They’re incredibly difficult to pop the ring on and off the bucket and I’d worry about stuff getting gummed up in the threads.
Plus you cn buy a lid with a grommet for around a fourth of the cost of a gamma lid.
I use four of them for individual packaged grain storage: roast, toast, crystal, and adjuncts. I use my old blue rectangle mash tun for individually packaged base malts.
Bacteria getting into the threads was a concern of mine, too. I suppose a good soaking in StarSan would mitigate that problem; I have totes big enough to spin, on-axis, my twelve-gallon fermenter. I have one of those “hooks”
that are used to pull the more common kind of lids off the buckets. I’m interested in these since the lids that are around half an inch thick don’t seem to be airtight. There is a layer of carbon dioxide gas positioned above the fermenting wort, so maybe I’m concerned with much ado about nothing.I mean the lids are usually tight enough to force gas out of an airlock, so I guess I’ve never worried about it.
Yep. If you get good airlock activity, then your lids are airtight. I use buckets + lids. I soak the lids in warm water and oxygen cleaner and then swish an old washcloth around the gasket to make sure any gunk is gone before rinsing and sanitizing. The lids look clean, and it’s clear from airlock activity that they hold a seal.
Gamma seal? Nope. A “solution” in search of a problem where none exists.
The tool, yes, makes removing the lid much, much easiler.
For primary fermentation, I don’t think the difference in seal between the regular bucket lids and a gamma seal is worth the price difference.
But for long-term storage of grains and whatnot, I could see the value proposition of the screw-on gamma seal.
Same for grain storage here, but I wouldn’t take the chance using them as a fermenter for sure.
Shortly after I started homebrewing, I went through the same chain of thought as @nvshooter2276, and I did try them: they aren’t worth the cost and hassle for a fermenter.
Have tried them on my bucket fermenters and as others have mentioned here, there are just too many crevices for stuff to hide and I just didn’t see a big payoff as a fermenter lid. When sealed with either lid, gentle pressure on the lid or bucket (during active fermenation) kind of confirms everything is coming in-and-out of the airlock. I used to worry that my bucket lids were leaking and I just stopped caring. I think bottling or dry hopping is likely the higher risk of oxygen egress.
So for my two cents, we use these in our lab at work for our spill kits. The old spill kits with regular lids had spill guards that solidified and were wet when we pulled them out. The gamma sealed kits were still dry as a desert. Sold. I keep all my grain in them now.
Gamma Seal lids are not for fermenting; however, they are excellent for storing grain. I use them to store my base and adjunct grains. I can reliably store grains for a year plus without loss of flavor or fermentable potency.
Again, I’d never use one for fermentation - there are just too many better options, but they can’t be beat for grain storage.
