Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[ktblunden]

Originally Posted by forgop

My complete newb guess was that the keg lid had a pretty poor seal and caused the fermentation issues or lack thereof. It had 2 weeks in the keg and 3+ weeks in the bottle. However, when I had the lid on as I put it on the shelf for the 2 weeks to ferment, it would release air if you squeezed the sides of the keg. Obviously, a perfect seal and that doesn't happen. I just hoped for the best and that's what I ended up with.

A fermenter should never be completely air-tight or it's just a bomb waiting to go off. That's why we use airlocks, which allow the Co2 to escape, but don't allow oxygen to get in. The sweetness was most likely a yeast that had been on the shelf a long time and didn't properly attenuate.