http://i.imgur.com/SnFG6kV.png
If I have to replenish the water, should I add in diluted star san? Thanks for all the help!
Posted Apr 5, 2015, 12:03 PM UTC
It looks like you lost a little, probably due to suck back. This will happen when the wort in the fermentor is warmer than the surrounding environment and it cools down. It creates negative pressure inside the fermentor. Don't worry, this won't hurt your beer with such a small amount of StarSan getting pulled in.
As for the liquid being pushed out now, that is from CO2 production caused by fermentation. Perfectly normal.
Thank you!
I'm going to disagree with TheGremlyn. The type of airlock you are using is designed to prevent vacuum 'suck back'. Most likely due to evaporation.
It can only do so much to prevent suck back, it isn't an infallible system. I'm making an assumption because I don't know how long it's been in the fermentor, but being that this is the OP's first brew, I might guess not very long :-)
Yup! Its been going on for 24 hrs, give or take a few.. :) So excited to taste this! Thanks for the help!
Try cheap vodka in the airlock. Kills all the nasty things and if it gets drawn back in to fermenter, doesn't hurt anything.
Haha! That actually sounds pretty clever! Up until now I have just used star san diluted with water, but I'm afraid the soap can affect the taste if/when it gets draw into the beer.
Well StarSan isn't soap, it's an acid. It's such a small amount, it won't affect a thing.
Water in the airlock will evaporate off, and you should fill it back up as needed. I usually use a Starsan solution at the outset and top off with plain water, unless I have some Starsan already mixed up (as on brewday/racking day), then I'll just top off with that then.
Thank you!