Cleaning Buckets

[Chris Alvey]

I always use an orange carboy cap with a piece of tube attached to the 'big' outlet going down into a growler full of water when I ferment with the BB.

Two reasons :

1. If you use a liquid-filled airlock it has a big tendency to want to suck the liquid back inside whenever the thing is moved or otherwise squeezed. It's REALLY easy to do and impossible to move without this happening. So, if you stay with the airlock, fill it full of Vodka at least.

2. I tend to fill it a little full and the fermentation really wants to get out of the top (an all over the floor or worse, cause an explosion), so I just use the blowoff tube method all the time and avoid this problem.

[Jim W]

Thanks for the advice about the orange cap. I have seen those, and will pick a few up. Mmmm. So that is where all of my vodka has been going. I thought the cat had learned to take a nip out of the airlock.