I saw a company market this and decided I can do this and save about $45
Theirs for ~$50:
Mine for ~$5 (granted I had the tubing, jars, air lock, and o-rings on hand)
I think I’ll install an ‘S’ air lock but here ya go after 5 min of drilling and assembly:
Cool. Consider switching to grommets. It would allow you to put the soft tubing directly into the lids and would minimize parts.
I may not understand the contraption, but, why is the extra airlock even needed? The tubing sits in water in the jar. That’s an airlock right there.
It’s kind of a triple airlock/blowoff deal so when you cold crash you don’t suck oxygen in your fermenter. Looks great, I think even if you bought done silicone tubing and the jars you’d be about $8 in.
True. But then I’d have to buy a bigger drill bit than I have on hand.
+1. It saves the CO2 from fermentation and when you cold crash it sucks CO2 back instead of O2 and liquid.
I’m gonna use the $45 to order my next batch’s ingredients.
Nice work and pretty cool too!
I like the idea, but it seems complicated. What I started doing on recent batches is just snip the corner off a large gallon size ziplock bag and then put the entire airlock inside the bag. I zip-tie the snipped corner around the airlock tube just above the fermenter grommet. While I could let the bag fill up with co2 from fermentation, I just purge and fill it from my c02 tank and seal it up prior to cold crashing. I have not seen more then about half the bag volume of C02 gas get pulled into the fermenter going from 70 to 35F.
Sorcery! I like it!
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
I’ve never been able to successfully (cleanly) drill a hole in a Mason jar lid. What kind of drill bit did you use?
Sorcery indeed! LOL
I used Dewalt Titanium bits. I did get some tearing but a pair of lineman’s pliers cleaned up the holes. The o-rings on each side of the lid – compressed slightly with nuts – gave me a good seal.
