• Whiskey

  Is there an airlock?

  Posted by countyseat on June 24, 2013 at 1:28 am

  I’m making a pretty straightforward moonshine. I had been using an airlock on 8 gallon barrels. I read that is a bad idea and stopped on this last round my yield on the stripping run (I didn’t check the ABV before stripping as it seemed fine and I’m always at just about 8% exactly) was about half of normal.

  Has anyone experimented using the airlock or not? The way I did my last round, I used the bucket, sealed the lid and left the little hole the airlock goes in empty.

  Thoughts?

  denver distiller replied 11 years, 5 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  sherman

  Member

  June 24, 2013 at 1:42 am

  It depends on the weather a lot. If it is really hot an airlock saves you alcohol, especially if you can’t get to it the day it is finished fermenting. I prefer airlocks all the time. Use a blow off tube for really large fermentations if you have too. A long tube in a bucket or jug. That way if there is evaporation you don’t lose the alcohol. it condenses on the lid and falls back into the fermenter.

• 

  sherman

  Member

  June 24, 2013 at 1:43 am

  It depends on the weather a lot. If it is really hot an airlock saves you alcohol, especially if you can’t get to it the day it is finished fermenting. I prefer airlocks all the time. Use a blow off tube for really large fermentations if you have too. A long tube in a bucket or jug. That way if there is evaporation you don’t lose the alcohol. it condenses on the lid and falls back into the fermenter.

• 

  jlevac

  Member

  August 3, 2013 at 3:06 am

  This might be a stupid question but after spending a lot of time on youtube looking at bourbon distilleries, it seems a few of them use open top fermenters. Can someone explain that to me… wouldn’t oxygen become a problem?

• 

  fldme

  Member

  August 4, 2013 at 3:51 pm

  Bourbon distilleries have traditionally used open top. Why would oxygen cause a problem?

• 

  denver distiller

  Member

  August 4, 2013 at 7:04 pm

  This might be a stupid question but after spending a lot of time on youtube looking at bourbon distilleries, it seems a few of them use open top fermenters. Can someone explain that to me… wouldn’t oxygen become a problem?

  Just as there is for open fermenters for beer…. there is a carbon dioxide “blanket” over the top of the fermenting mash. Oxidation is minimal. Brewers transfer that beer out of an open fermenter to closed aging tanks. The distiller simply pumps in to the beer well, an into the still.

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