Carboy Cap: No bubbles or blow-off?

[BrewBlender]

I've got two six gallon carboys fermening away, both with the orange carboy caps...one is bubbling away, blowing off like crazy and the other, not one bubble and no blow-off happening...but yet it's actively fermenting the same as the other. Obviously, the cap is not fitting correctly, but should I be worried about anything? (contamination?) Is there anything I can do to fix the cap or just let it go until I switch over to an rubber stopper airlock?

[stadelman]

I personally wouldn't worry about it, especially during active fermentation.

I've run into a couple of different things on these.

1. My carboy handle was a little loose. It was wedged up just enough to keep the carboy cap from going all the way down.
2. Wrong cap on the blow off hose spout. It was just slightly larger, but large enough to let gas escape.

Other areas you might look at... Is the airlock firmly seated? Is the cap firmly seated on the blow off portion of the cap? Crack in the airlock? Is there enough liquid in the airlock?

[noremorse1]

During primary fermentation there should be enough co2 on top of your beer to keep it protected. I wouldn't worry about it until things begin to slow down.

[Phil]

you can try padding out the lip of the carboy with a few wraps of saran wrap (spray with starsan) and then put the hood over that. obviously don't cover the mouth with saran wrap.

[bikefoolery]

I use the teflon plumbing tape. It is thin enough to fit the groove perfectly. And it's cheap to replace every fermentation. Although bugs generally cannot crawl up on their own, I'm still paranoid.

You may want to switch the caps at some point to see it the cap is stretched or the carboy has the issue. Hopefully you can just replace the cap or switch to a rubber stopper. Whenever I use a stopper, I hit with Starsan prior to moving it. The dust in the crease could present an issue. Again, I'm paranoid.

The Fool