So I have very limited clearance in my lager fridge with my current tank. Can I use a sanitized form stopper in place of normal airlock? For primary I MacGyvered a blow off tube. I plan on lagering for 5-6wks
What is your lagering vessel, and how close to FG are you? You really want to avoid oxygen ingress during lagering, so a foam stopper should be avoided. If your vessel can take a little potential pressure, why not keep it closed?
My tank is 15gal speidel tank, it has solid lid cap that I can use. I just wasn’t sure if i needed it.
I had it primary for 2wks, I was going transfer it tonight and pull a sample for a gravity reading. I have not seen any activity for about 4days
Love Speidel! Yeah, I’d close it up, and if you’re worried it’s going to carbonate (or more than you want at least) loosen the threads on the cap and bleed it off once in a while. But it sounds like you’re fermented out. I ferment in a Speidel and rack to a corny to lager, and if activity has died off like that, I bet you won’t ferment out more than 1 gravity point more (if any at all.)
thank you
Something to keep in mind: when temp increases, so does pressure. So the headspace at 35F might be at atmosphere but if you pull it out to a 80F room, it short order it will be higher. Plus liquid at cold temp holds more CO2 than warmer. Meaning that if you pull it out of the fridge to a warm room, left unattended it will warm up and CO2 will off gas and pressure will build. I would suggest looking at Nor-Cal brew supply and consider a cap that has a 5psi safety relief valve.
By the time you get to lagering, you don’t need an airlock.