Newbie Question

[tightbarsteward]

Going to start my 1st ever homebrew kit this week and in order to maintain the correct temp I have bought a thermostatic heater as I dont have anywhere in the house between 21-27 degrees day in day out. The FV snaps shut but with the heater flex coming out of the top it wont shut totally air tight.

So my question is does it need to be totally air-tight? If does how could I achieve this with the flex being in the way?

Any tips comments greatly appreciated.

[crafty john]

Don't worry about it being completely airtight, I just put a piece of duck tape where my flex enters the FV The CO2 that is produced will protect your beer.

[trucker5774]

The FV does not need to be air tight. If you want to make the job a little neater you could remove the plug from the hearter, drill a hole in the lid and fit a grommet. Pass the heater lead through the grommet and refit the plug.

[tightbarsteward]

Cheers for that. I think I might have a few grommets kicking about having just had my house rewired.

1 more question, I have been saving empty 500ml bottles from a variety of real ales over the past few weeks. I Tried Jennings Cumberland Ale for 1st time recently. It was in a green bottle and said on the label something abut them using thinner glass bottles cos it good for the environment blah blah blah. It struck me that I shouldn't transfer my brew into bottles of this type unless I want to create something exploding!

As a rule of thumb are most of the brown bottles OK to use?

[barl_fire]

I used the approach Crafty John suggests with duck tape but make sure if the mains socket is lower down than your FV/heater set up that you have a drip loop in the flex as you don't want beer/condensation running down the flex to the live plug, (this should be mentioned in the heater's instruction anyway), alternatively use a socket up a height with your kit below then that's not an issue.

I didn't bother with the hole through the lid approach as it's more convenient to have the flexibility to wash/sterilise the heater and lid separately, I find that the lids on the Youngs fermenter buckets are so soft and pliable that when pushed shut against the flex they almost mould themselves around the flex anyway. From my days of working in a lab with agar plates and the like, without strong air currents in a room, air-borne bugs and nasties can only fall vertically into broths and fermenters, so with something covered on top although not sealed it is unlikely anything can get in sideways or from below, unless you've got the door open and there's a wind howling in from outside

[fractureman]

Everyone has more or less covered it, I have 2 FV's both with immersion heaters in, I just have the flex going in over the lip of the FV wit the lid on top too, never had a problem.

[Ditch]

Taking off the plugs and passing the flexes through the grommet holes was the biggest mistake I ever made

Means ye unplug. Lift the lid. And there ye are, standing there like some sort of over grown kid playing Gladiators! Bloody lid in one hand.Heater in the other. What ye gonna do now

No. Whipped mine out again. Now I pop off the lid and put that aside. Take out the heater and put that aside. Get on with what I've come to do. Far simpler.

I just snap the lid on as far as the flex, over the rim, will allow too. Not a problem.