hoppyhowie

Recipes 

I just tried making a small batch for experimentation (2.5 gallons). I put it into my normal 6.5 gal carboy after reading this shouldn't make too much of a difference. It seems to be progressing nicely, however it seems that there is much slower fermentation. Its been 3 days now and I've noticed that it has peaked at about 1 bubble in the airlock every 8 seconds which is MUCH slower than everything else I've done.
Could this be due to the reduced load that there is just less overall material or do you think its something else? Thanks for any input!

OlatheSurferDude

Recipes 

I have done something similar but don't remember a big change. They say airlock activity doesn't represent fermentation progress. Maybe related to additional head space? How active does it look when looking at the liquid itself?

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Primary - Empty
Secondary - Empty
Bottled - Wheat (not the best), Cream Ale (Drinking), Irish Stout (Conditioning)

2011 Brewed Total - 22.5 Gal
2012 Brewed Total - 12.5 Gal
2012 Goal - 60 Gal

hoppyhowie

Recipes 

I'm thinking its the head space. It looks pretty active, large krausen with actually very large bubbles that I'm not used to. Thanks for the reminder that airlock activity isn't same as fermentation... just so tempting to think it is!

OlatheSurferDude

Recipes 

Glad to be of some help. I like using my glass carboy for my small batches. Gives me access to see what's really going on that I normally don't see when I do a 5 gal batch.

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Primary - Empty
Secondary - Empty
Bottled - Wheat (not the best), Cream Ale (Drinking), Irish Stout (Conditioning)

2011 Brewed Total - 22.5 Gal
2012 Brewed Total - 12.5 Gal
2012 Goal - 60 Gal

Revvy

Recipes 

Airlock bubbling means nothing, it's not a fermentation gauge. How much it bubbles or not has nothing to do with how active or fast or slow a fermentation is going. All an airlock is is a vent, a valve to release EXCESS co2 to keep the lid from blowing off the fermenter and painting your ceiling with beer. The reason it seems to be bubbling LESS with a small volume of beer in a larger fermenter has nothing to do with the rate of fermentation...it should be obvious, it has to do with the fact that you have a larger HEADSPACE, and therefore the co2 isn't needing to vent OUT of the fermenter as much as if it were in a tighter space.

Remember airlock= valve, NOT Magic Fermentation Gauge, don't correlate what the yeast are doing with how it is bubbling....

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hoppyhowie

Recipes 

yeah, i'll have to rely on the gravity readings. It would be nice to have a gauge of how well things are progressing while you're waiting patiently.

tektonjp

Recipes 

I think it might actually be a math problem. One half of a normal batch will produce, um, just a second, getting my socks off so I can count, erm, maybe one half of the co2 of a regular sized batch? Just a guess, though.

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Tempest Bebende!

tektonjp

Recipes 

Oh, sorry. Was I supposed to post an OT question? I get easily confused.

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elvestinkle

Recipes 

My half-batches also outgass less vigorously in my 6-gallon BB. I'm pretty sure it's a headspace/volume thing--more volume means overall less pressure. It's kinda nice, actually; I can pitch Notty and not even care how big the krausen gets

heferly

Recipes 

Nah, just think he's trolling and posting bad info as fact

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