I have 4 ferments that have been going for a little under 20 days right now.
All of them took about 3 days to really get going, were then very active for about 6 days, after which things slowed down.
About 2 days after the ferment seemed to have slowed down I found all of them with negative pressure, as seen in the airlock.
Some of them had even swallowed a bit of water. I was kind of bothered by the fact they were getting possibly contaminated water injected, so I decided to gently unscrew the lids to equalize the pressure, after which I tightened them again, thinking that was that.
However, I've had the same thing happen 3 times already now! It just seems to happen every 3 days or so.
I know temperature can be a big influence on this, but these ferments are in a controlled environment where temperature fluctuations are 4 degrees at most over a 24 hour period. I've also checked the barometric pressure in my area, and at first I thought it might be the culprit as the first instance of it happening seemed to line up with a big change in pressure. This time the barometric pressure was quite stable and it still happened though.
I'm at a loss as to why this is happening, and would really hate to see these batches ruined. Would appreciate any advice!
I've added some pictures for reference.
All of them took about 3 days to really get going, were then very active for about 6 days, after which things slowed down.
About 2 days after the ferment seemed to have slowed down I found all of them with negative pressure, as seen in the airlock.
Some of them had even swallowed a bit of water. I was kind of bothered by the fact they were getting possibly contaminated water injected, so I decided to gently unscrew the lids to equalize the pressure, after which I tightened them again, thinking that was that.
However, I've had the same thing happen 3 times already now! It just seems to happen every 3 days or so.
I know temperature can be a big influence on this, but these ferments are in a controlled environment where temperature fluctuations are 4 degrees at most over a 24 hour period. I've also checked the barometric pressure in my area, and at first I thought it might be the culprit as the first instance of it happening seemed to line up with a big change in pressure. This time the barometric pressure was quite stable and it still happened though.
I'm at a loss as to why this is happening, and would really hate to see these batches ruined. Would appreciate any advice!
I've added some pictures for reference.
