Plastic bucket question

[Polux]

Hi, I'm fermenting a beer in a bucket with the lid unclipped. I'm wondering a couple of things...

Can I leave my beer fermenting for a month in the plastic bucket without touching it. Will the unclipped lid become a problem at some point? Will it oxydizes if I open the lid to take a gravity sample and put it back on again, unclipped?

Thank you!

 

[J A]

Most of those buckets don't seal 100 percent, so if you're a few days into fermentation you can probably go ahead and push it down so that it stays and you don't have to worry about it. After early fermentation, most of them don't show activity through the airlock even when they're "sealed".
If you're careful about lifting the lid just far enough to pull a sample ( I use a sanitized turkey baster) the CO2 blanket will likely stay intact just fine. If you mess with it a lot you could cause trouble. If you're not worried about a stall, I'd just let it sit for 2-3 weeks and maybe take one sample to see if you FG is as predicted. Otherwise, just slam it down tight and leave it until you're ready to bottle or keg.

 

[jeffpn]

I think you're worrying too much about oxidation. When I fermented in a bucket, I completely removed the lid to put my hydrometer in it. Maybe I did that twice to make sure the readings were the same a day or two apart.
RDWHAHB.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

yes you can just leave it, why a month, just asking?

 

[Nosybear]

You can leave it much longer than a month. The reason for pulling the beer off the yeast cake is picking up off-flavors from either hop debris or autolyzed yeast. Yeast under beer is remarkably resilient. As for oxidation, CO2 is much heavier than air. As long as you don't stir things around too much, the CO2 blanket will remain intact enough AND the beer is mostly saturated with CO2. That means it will to at least a slight extent repair the blanket. You'll oxidize more spashing the beer about in racking than in removing the lid (gently). Mostly, the answer to your question is relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.