ThreeDogsNE

Recipes 

Sort of a sanitization question: I have an 11-12 gallon batch of Edwort'srobuts porter in 2 6 gallon Better Bottles. I had pitched Nottingham in both jugs, which seemed to blow through the fermentation in 3 or 4 days in each of them. Yesterday I sampled for gravity in one. O.G was 1.068, and 6 days later it was 1.020. The fermentation locks had been still for a couple of days, until I sampled. I did stir the trub a bit with the thief. Since then the jug I sampled has had slow activity in the fermentation lock. The other one, which I did not sample, remains still, with no activity in the fermentation lock at all. I rocked that jug a bit, but it remains quiet. I had sanitized the thief with StarSan. I had mixed up the StarSan with RO water a few weeks ago, and it is still clear. I think I sanitized the thief well, but the recurrent activity in this jug worries me. Did I introduce an infection I need to kill off? Sneaking a sniff, they smell the same to me.

ISUBrew79

Recipes 

I doubt an infection is the culprit. In the course of sampling your brew to take a gravity reading, you likely created nucleation sites that allowed some dissolved CO2 in the beer to escape. Also, given the fact that your brew's gravity was at 1.020, and my expectation that Nottingham would attenuate a bit further than that, you might continue to see a little more airlock activity.

As Revvy would say, though, the airlock is a pressure relief valve, not a fermentation gauge. The beer could be, and probably is, still fermenting. Unless there are outward signs of infection (off flavors or odors, etc.), I wouldn't worry too much about it until you are ready to package your brew.

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College Creek Brewing Company, est. 2008
Primary: None
Secondary: None
Bottled: None
Keg 1: Imperial Pumpkin Ale (on tap)
Keg 2: Green Line Pale Ale Clone (on tap)
Keg 3: Empty