A water trap is a mechanism used to make mash, which will then be used to produce alcoholic beverages. During fermentation, care must be taken to ensure that the carbon dioxide that forms inside the tank exits and oxygen does not enter the fermentation tank. For this purpose, a water trap is used for fermentation.
What is it for and what is it for?
As we have already noted, the main purpose of this tool is to remove CO 2 from a container filled with brine. This gas is continuously and continuously generated in the device. As a rule, each liter of mash emits about 4 cubic meters of carbon dioxide. But such devices are used not at all for the preparation of a liter of alcohol. At least the volume of such containers is from 5 to 10-15 liters. Therefore, during fermentation, 20 to 50 or more cubic meters of CO 2 gas can form in it. However, it must not only be diverted, but eliminated in such a way that oxygen does not get back into the container. Because if we just open the cork or the lid, oxygen will certainly penetrate there, and this is extremely unacceptable for fermentation. Therefore, in the preparation of alcohol, a fermentation tank with a water trap is always used, which eliminates carbon dioxide so that pure oxygen contained in the air in a certain amount does not penetrate back there.
Why is it so important to use it in such cases?
The fact is that when oxygen gets into the prepared liquid (which will soon become an alcoholic drink), along with alcoholic fermentation , other processes that are very harmful to the mash can occur. For example, the formation of acetic acid is the most common option in such cases. It is also not excluded that while getting into the capacity of oxygen, the mash simply turns sour.
Functions
Based on all of the above, it can be said that the fermentation trap serves as a check valve, that is, releasing one gas, it does not allow another to penetrate there. In addition, this device serves as a kind of indicator that indicates how correctly the fermentation process is carried out. The classic way to check the condition of a liquid is the presence of bubbles in it. And if the process of “bubbling” in the shutter has stopped, it means that the brew has prepared. Absolutely every tool has such a function. And it doesn’t matter if you make a fermentation lock yourself or purchase it in a store. By the way, it costs a little - about 200 rubles, so it’s better not to suffer and immediately buy a finished device - so you will save a lot of time.
Most often, a special rubber stopper (diameter about one and a half centimeters) is supplied with this tool, due to which the device is hermetically mounted in a container for the formation of mash. And the fermentation trap is mounted on a sealed tank from above.