If you have ever made homemade wine, you know exactly how important the fermentation process is. Of course, the easiest way is to buy a ready-made water seal, but it is many times faster to make a water seal for wine with your own hands without extra expenses. It will take very little time to create it, and improvised means are suitable as materials. Let's talk about the most popular models.

Do-It-Yourself Water Lock

The indispensability of a water seal in winemaking

Why do you need a water seal? During fermentation, a large amount of carbon dioxide is released (about 4 m 3 / 1 liter of alcohol obtained). If carbon dioxide accumulates in the tank, very high pressure will be created. And sooner or later there will be an explosion. Therefore, it is important to remove the gas from the inside, but in no case should oxygen be put into the tank. Indeed, in this case, bacteria will multiply, which convert alcohol into acetic acid. In the meantime, oxygen does not penetrate into the fermentation chamber, the bacteria are in a dormant state.

In fact, this shutter is a special valve that brings carbon dioxide out and prevents oxygen from entering inside. Without it, it is impossible to make wine, because the result will be vinegar. Experienced winemakers and moonshiners vehemently discuss the need for its use. But if you are new to this business, then you can not do without it.

If we talk about Braga, then there is no unambiguous answer to the need for a water seal. But with this design, the mash can be kept longer without distillation, and it will not oxidize. And absolutely all alcohol will be safe.

Water lock on the braga

Do-it-yourself water lock options

Let's talk about which design options are most common among the population. They belong to universal models, so they are also suitable for creating wine and mash. All options are presented in pictures and with a step-by-step description of the creation process.

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Classic water lock (tube, jar, lid)

This design is the most elementary among the others. But, despite this, and the most reliable. To build it, you should do everything according to the instructions below:

• make a hole in the lid of the fermentation container;
• you need to insert a tube into it;
• at the junction it is required to ensure complete sealing, for this you can use glue;
• the free end of the tube is placed in a container (jar) with water.

Classic homemade water seal

Of the minuses of such a device, one can single out the fact that it is possible to clog the tube with foam. In the event that a small diameter tube is used.

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The advantage is that with its help you can find out about the readiness of the product. The absence of bubbles in a container of water for a couple of days indicates that unsweetened mash can be distilled and the wine drained from the sediment.

Use of a medical glove

This method is no less simple than the previous one. This design will be more to the liking of those whose fermentation containers have a neck with a wide diameter. It's not technically a shutter, but the result is the same. Women will especially like this option, because you don’t need to make anything with tools or glue.

Creation instructions below.

1. Select any finger of the glove and pierce it with a needle to get a small hole.
2. Now the glove must be put on the neck of the container.
3. To prevent the glove from slipping due to gas pressure, you need to fix the glove on the neck with a regular thread.

Minus: it is difficult or impossible to fix the glove on a container that is over 20 liters. capacity and has a very wide neck. The gas pressure will be too high. The disadvantages include the smell of fermentation processes, which is guaranteed to be in the room.

Advantage: Using this type of shutter at home, you can easily determine the degree of fermentation. When the processes are active, the glove will be fully inflated. When the fermentation has passed, the glove will be deflated.

Shutter from a regular rubber glove

Silent water seal

This device can also be created from improvised materials. This is suitable for those who cannot stand the characteristic gurgling that accompanies active fermentation. You can make such a water seal that removes sounds from an ordinary plastic bottle, a medical syringe and a tube of a suitable diameter.

Silent shutter option

It should take a little time to build, but as a result you will have a device that looks like a ready-made version from the store.

The main and only plus of a quiet water seal is the absence of gurgling. The process of its creation can be seen in the video below.

Cotton cork

This design option is quite simple, but cannot guarantee complete tightness in terms of air passage. The scheme is as follows - the neck of the container in which fermentation takes place must be completely plugged with ordinary cotton wool. As cotton wool, you can use any materials that have a porous structure and can pass carbon dioxide from the inside.

This is especially ineffective at the end of fermentation. By lowering the pressure inside, air begins to penetrate from the outside. And this leads to damage to the product. In addition, it is very difficult to understand whether fermentation is still going on or has already ended.

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Store water seal

It is very simple to build a water seal for wine by doing it yourself. Moreover, you can get by with improvised materials. And yes, it will take a few minutes. But the benefits and results are amazing. In addition to knowing exactly when fermentation is over, you will also prevent the alcohol from turning into vinegar. Minimum effort - maximum effect: this is exactly about the water seal for wine.

The preparation of wine consists in the fermentation of the must, when the sugar contained in it is converted into alcohol. The reaction is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide, which must be constantly removed, for which a water seal is used for fermentation.

The principle of operation of the water seal

The process proceeds normally only in the absence of air. The oxygen and bacteria in it oxidize the alcohol, which decomposes into acetic acid and water.

During fermentation, a large amount of carbon dioxide is formed, which should be constantly removed from the container, maintain tightness and prevent the risk of ejection of the contents of the container when the cork is knocked out by gas pressure. To do this, a water seal is created in the form of a water castle. The device is sold in many varieties, but it can be made from improvised means that cost nothing.

The simplest design for creating tightness is a rubber glove tightly worn over the neck of the bottle. A hole is pierced in it, through which carbon dioxide exits the bottle. It creates excess pressure inside, which does not allow air to pass through from the outside.

It is important to catch the end of the fermentation process so that air does not get into the bottle from rarefaction. Here you need to seal the exit hole in the glove in time.

Similarly, you can use a children's ball with a hole, nipples from bicycle cameras, a valve with a ball from a vodka bottle.

Requirements for water seals and tanks

When a do-it-yourself water seal is made for fermentation, it must comply with the following requirements:

1. Resistance to mechanical stress and temperature changes.
2. The presence of a transparent body through which you can control the activity of the fermentation process.
3. No materials that affect the taste of drinks.
4. Durability under cyclic load during the preparation of mash.
5. Tightness and ease of use.

The industrial fermentation seal contains everything you need. When working with it, you only need to observe the proportions of the components, the exposure time and the temperature regime.

Fermentation tanks

The selected containers should have the following characteristics:

• convenience and reusability;
• exclusion of explosions accompanied by ejection of the lid and contents of the container by accumulated gases;
• the presence of the entire kit so that you can immediately prepare the solution;
• the ability to choose the required volume;
• the use of chemically neutral materials (glass, wood, special plastic, stainless steel);
• matching cost and quality.

Selection of a water seal

A water seal for wine fermentation can be purchased at a specialized store. It is also easy to find and purchase at an affordable price online. There are many types of devices on the market, including gauges, drain taps, heaters, and more. The fermentation water seal is sold at an affordable price. A three-chamber collapsible device costs only 150 rubles. Even simpler is a two-chamber design in the form of a coil, which is sold at a price of 140 rubles.

For home-made wines, glass containers are preferred because they are better suited in terms of volume than barrels and are cheaper than stainless steel. Plastic is also beginning to find use, but winemakers still prefer glass.

Additional attributes allow you to better organize the wort fermentation process.

Simple water seal (classic)

A reliable water seal for fermentation with your own hands can be made as follows:

1. A glass or plastic bottle is filled with wort no higher than the shoulders.
2. A through hole is made in the cork or lid.
3. A rubber or plastic hose fits tightly through the hole into the container without touching the surface of the liquid. As the volume of the bottle increases, a larger diameter hose should be used.
4. The fermentation bottle with a water seal is closed and additionally sealed with a coating (wax, paraffin, alabaster, gypsum). The connection of the hose with the plug should be done using glue.
5. The free end of the hose is lowered into a jar of water installed next to the bottle at the same level.

Fermentation begins if bubbles of carbon dioxide are continuously released in the liquid. By their number, one can judge how intensively the process is going on. In heat, the reaction is more active. The water in the bank is maintained at the same level and periodically changed.

The reaction ends when the carbon dioxide bubbles stop being released. But this does not mean the end of the process. The reason may be a decrease in room temperature and a lack of sugar in the wort. The process can be continued by eliminating the negative factors until the concentration of alcohol in the wine reaches the desired concentration. Winemakers determine this through tasting.

To make good wine, the system must be airtight. This is especially true for connecting the tube to the container lid. The use of putty does not ensure its reliability. A high-quality connection is obtained by inserting an elastic tube into the opening of the cover, and then wedging it from the inside with a nylon fitting. It is made from a car windscreen washer tee, which is cut into 2 parts, after removing the side pipe. Tightness can be improved by first applying PVA glue to the contact areas.

A similar design of a water seal is made as follows:

1. A hole is made in the lid of the fermentation container.
2. A plastic dropper needle is tightly inserted into the hole.
3. The free end of the flexible hose is placed into the water bottle through the hole in the lid.

For large volumes of production, each container is a barrel or fermentation tank with a water seal. A lot of gas is formed in them, and special metal tie-ins are used to remove it, for example, from bronze. For private users, they are offered in hardware stores.

A hole of the required diameter is made in the body of the wine fermentation tank with a water seal, and a tie-in is mounted in it. A flexible hose is connected to it, which lowers its free end into a jar of water.

How to eliminate an unpleasant smell?

The gas escaping from the fermentation tank with water seal has an unpleasant odor. You can fix it with a special tool. To do this, a jar of water is closed with a lid with two holes. 2 hoses are tightly inserted into them. One of them comes from the bottle and is immersed in water by 2-3 cm. One end of the other hose does not reach the liquid level, and the other goes into the sewer, into the window or exhaust ventilation. The smell will be negligible if the pipe is simply lying in the sink.

Quiet Water Seal

The use of a classic water seal is accompanied by noise from emerging bubbles. It can be reduced by making a water seal for fermentation with your own hands. This will require a plastic bottle and a syringe. A plastic bottle with a cut bottom is attached to the lid of a large container with a hole and a tube inserted into it. A syringe with holes at the bottom is placed inside it and filled with water from above, due to which a water seal is created. From above, the cut off part of the bottle can be closed with a leaky cap.

The gas exits the large container into a tube with a syringe and travels through the water in the form of bubbles to the atmosphere.

Shutter with silencer

The silencer can be installed for a classic water seal. To do this, a porous material, such as a sponge or foam rubber, is put on the end of the hose, lowered into a glass jar. So that it does not fly off, it is placed in a plastic bottle without a bottom, fixed in the hole in the lid of the jar and partially submerged in water.

The gas from the hose enters the porous material that is in the water, and then goes up through it and exits through the openings of the vial. The lid must have a side opening for exit. At the same time, no gurgling is heard.

The muffler should be put on the hose easily so that when foam from the can gets into it, it does not clog, but flies off under the action of excessive pressure. Otherwise, the pressure inside the vessel may cause the glass vessel to break.

Conclusion

Water seal fermentation tanks can be purchased individually or as a set. Some elements of the fermentation device can be made by hand, but the safety of the process and the production of a quality product must be ensured.

What is a water seal and why is it needed? In all recipes for the preparation of drinks that need fermentation, a water seal is used. After all, the fermentation process is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide. And the access of oxygen from the air leads to the fact that our drink does not ferment, but turns sour. This is where the water seal comes to the rescue. It is just designed to release carbon dioxide and prevent contact of the drink with air.

How to make a water seal for wine

There are a huge variety of types of water seals on the market, but often they either do not fit our containers, or just when we need them, they are not available. However, you should not despair. After all, at home there are almost always several items that will help us make a water lock for mash with our own hands.

How to make a water lock for wine with your own hands

This will be one of the easiest options. True, it is somewhat limited in use. It can be successfully installed on any glass jar. To do this, take an ordinary medical rubber glove. Its feature is that it is very elastic and easily stretched.

• We pierce a hole in one of the fingers of the glove with a needle.
• We put a glove on the neck of the jar and fix it tightly on the neck.

Such a shutter is sometimes called "Greetings to Gorbachev". During fermentation, gases fill the glove and it inflates. The hole in the finger enlarges and excess gas escapes through it. Evidence of the termination of the fermentation process is the lowering of the glove.

• Instead of a glove for bottles, you can use a balloon

Water lock from a dropper

For this do-it-yourself water seal, we will use the part of the dropper that serves to supply air to the bottle.

• Close the container with a plastic lid or cork stopper.

• We pierce it using a dropper needle

• We lower the free end of the dropper tube into a container of water.

Now carbon dioxide will freely escape through the tube to the outside, and water will prevent air from entering the can. The fermentation process is controlled by air bubbles that float in a jar of water. The cessation of air release indicates the cessation of the fermentation process.

Do-it-yourself water seal for wine

In the case of large containers - barrels, it becomes necessary to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide. When using plastic drums, we can use standard bronze dies for plastic containers.

• bronze inlay. It can be purchased at any hardware store.

• We drill a hole of suitable diameter in the lid.

• Screw on the notch.

• We connect a flexible hose to the tie-in.
• Lower the other end of the hose into a container of water.

The fermentation process is considered completed when the release of gas bubbles from the hose stops.

Thus, we examined the simplest options for water locks that you can do with your own hands using improvised means.

Making homemade wine, in addition to various ingredients: jam, raisins, etc., is not complete without glass containers and a water seal. You can make a water seal for wine with your own hands at home from improvised materials, or you can buy a ready-made one. Let's choose the first option, and find out how you can make a water seal for making wine drinks on your own, in different ways.

Water seal for homemade wine: is it necessary or not?

First you need to understand what a water seal means when making wine, why it is necessary. And it is needed for the following purposes.

To remove carbon dioxide from the tank

With the help of a water seal, home winemakers remove carbon dioxide from the tank where the raw materials for wine roam. The gas is formed there continuously and requires a constant output, moreover, in such a way that oxygen does not get into the future wine.

If it gets there, along with alcoholic fermentation, unnecessary processes may start, for example, acetic acid will begin to form in the container, due to which the mash will simply turn sour, and the wine will not turn out. And the water seal in this case acts as a check valve.

To determine the presence of a fermentation process

A water seal helps to understand whether fermentation is going on in homemade wine, and how intensively.

For example, if “bubble” has stopped in it, this indicates that fermentation is complete.

To eliminate odor from fermentation

With the help of a water seal, you can remove the smell from fermentation into the sewer. Thus, the house will not smell unpleasantly of mash.

Now we will learn how to properly make a water seal for wine at home.

Options for water seals for making a house

Homemade water lock for wine from a glove

If the raw materials ferment in a glass jar, an ordinary rubber glove can serve as a water seal, but not an economic one, but a medical one: it stretches better.

We put a glove on the neck of the jar, fasten it well with an elastic band and pierce one of the fingers. During fermentation, it will inflate with the emitted gases, and their excess will exit through the hole made.

As soon as the fermentation stops, the glove will hang. By the way, the glove can be replaced with a balloon.

Before learning how to properly make a water seal for wine, we buy a glass jar with a lid and a piece of hose. This design option is suitable for regular cans and bottles with a narrow neck. For a jar, you need a simple polyethylene lid, for a bottle - a rubber one.

We make a water seal as follows:

• We punch a hole in the lid along the diameter of the hose, which should not be too small so that the hose does not clog with foam.
• We insert the hose into the hole and seal the contact area with the cover with plasticine or glue so that air does not penetrate.
• We close the container with a lid with a piece of hose and seal the contact area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe lid and the can (bottle) with adhesive tape or plasticine. The hose must not touch the must.
• At the same level with the container, we put a jar of water and immerse the end of the hose there. We fix it so that it is constantly in the water.

The main thing is that the water seal is airtight, only then fermentation will proceed correctly.

How to make a water seal for wine from a medical syringe

To get started, we buy such devices:

• Stationery gum (you can use a piece of twine);
• Syringe 10 ml and another one slightly larger;
• Dropper.

To begin with, we take out the fittings from the syringes and throw them away, and cut off the tube from the dropper, leaving a piece 3 cm long.

• Using a needle, we tear off the filter located inside the dropper - it will not be useful.
• We insert a 10 ml syringe into the dropper, directing the transparent hose inward. We position the second syringe so that both syringes are located in a jack, and we fasten the structure with an elastic band. A small syringe collects carbon dioxide, a large one contains water.
• We connect the noses of the syringes with a hose from the dropper, the length of which should be such that it does not break.

The water seal is ready, it remains to install it on the container and use it for its intended purpose.

For it, you will need a part of the dropper through which air is supplied to the vial. To make this shutter yourself, follow the instructions:

• We close the jar (bottle) with a plastic lid (cork from the bark).
• We make a hole in the cap (cork) by piercing it with a needle from a dropper.
• We lower the free tip of the tube from the dropper into a bottle or jar of water.

Thanks to this design, carbon dioxide will easily exit the container through the tube, and water will not allow air to penetrate inside the jar (bottle). If the wort is fermenting, air bubbles will float up in a jar of water; if it stops fermenting, they disappear.

Now you know how to make a water seal for wine with your own hands. It remains only to buy a few simple "spare parts", make a water seal and make aromatic wine.