Can fermentation be done if there are still still bubbles

ecormier · 08-19-2009, 04:23 PM

Just wondering if anyone can give me some advice....
Here's what I've got (I'll be a specific as I can be):
Coopers - Bitter
boiled the malt extract and all water before on my stove and cooled before pitching my yeast (coopers ale yeast)

I've got a fermentation chiller set to a consistent 65 degrees
by day 2 I had a nice krausen, which went away on day 5 and I racked to a secondary on the same day
Now I'm on day 22 since I started and my specific gravity has been at 1.010 for at least a week (so to me it seems like this should be a final gravity....high, but not changing)

Here's the thing there is still a thin circle of bubbles around the neck of my carboy and I can see the occasional (small) bubbles coming to the surface....it doesn't seem like anything is coming through the airlock

So should I bottle? this is my first time using the fermentation chiller and after three weeks of primary/secondary and one week of consistent SG it feels like it should be done.....but the bubbles in the carboy are freaking me out....can it just be left over co2?

Eugene

**Revvy** · 08-19-2009, 04:26 PM

If you have taken multiple grav readings and are near terminal gravity, then go ahead and bottle. The bubbles more than likely are just trapped co2 coming out from under the trub in the bottom of the fermenter.

thedigitale · 08-19-2009, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecormier

since I started and my specific gravity has been at 1.010 for at least a week (so to me it seems like this should be a final gravity....high, but not changing)

That's not high at all. A majority of my beers finish at 1.010

Only time you're really going to get lower than that is with a lambic.

Schnitzengiggle · 08-19-2009, 05:41 PM

I use the extended primary method allowing my beers to sit in the primary fermenter for about a month before racking, I have had one in particular that continued to bubble through the airlock just as it were fermenting for well over a month (just co2 being released from solution). Just as Revvy states, always use your hydrometer to check if fermentation is still occuring it is the only way that you will know for certain.

BTW Revvy you should have a counter for how many times you explain the importance of hydrometer usage, it seems as though I come across at least a few threads a week with your "hydrometer talk" to some of the newer brewers. How many times would you say you have made the statements?

**Revvy** · 08-19-2009, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schnitzengiggle

BTW Revvy you should have a counter for how many times you explain the importance of hydrometer usage, it seems as though I come across at least a few threads a week with your "hydrometer talk" to some of the newer brewers. How many times would you say you have made the statements?

It seems like it averages about 5-10 times a day actually...But according to doing an advance search on posts by Revvy with the word hydrometer in it, I have only done it 462 times....Since January 3, 2008. That seems a little low, doesn't it?

Oh wait, add another 260 times I called it a "Hydro" and 497 times calling it a "gravity reading."

*whew* I thought I was slipping.

I wish I didn't have to do it at all. But it appears that there's this "mentality" among many new brewers that using the hydrometer is somehow "messing with it" or "will harm their beer."

And yet many will grab a packet of yeast and re-pitch, or move to secondary, or dump their beer as "knee jerk reactions" BEFORE they would ever think of grabbing the hydrometer.

If you look at the threads on here like the "is my beer ruined threads" you will see that many times, the op's will give long detailed information about their recipe, their process, the squaring of the moon on brew day, and yet no mention of what is probably the most important piece of info they (and we) need to know in order to figure out what's going on.

I dunno what causes this "mentality" about the hydrometer...I don't think it's brewing books, becasue they all stress taking grav readings, I know it's not most brewing sites like this, because THEY advocate hydrometers....but there is this underlying misinterpretation of what the hydrometer is....like the title of that blog I wrote is, people "treat" their beers, without ever diagnosing whether or not there is even anything wrong.

It's a weird phenomenon.......

wildwest450 · 08-19-2009, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

I wish I didn't have to do it at all. But it appears that there's this "mentality" among many new brewers that using the hydrometer is somehow "messing with it" or "will harm their beer."

And yet many will grab a packet of yeast and re-pitch, or move to secondary, or dump their beer as "knee jerk reactions" BEFORE they would ever think of grabbing the hydrometer.

Truer words have never been spoken. If it weren't for that question being asked ad nauseam, Revvy wouldn't have carpal tunnel syndrome.

**Revvy** · 08-19-2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildwest450

Truer words have never been spoken. If it weren't for that question being asked ad nauseam, Revvy wouldn't have carpal tunnel syndrome.

+1,000

*owie*

TheFlatline · 08-19-2009, 08:12 PM

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because sanitizing everything is a pain in the ass, and it's quicker and easier to skip that part.

We need Brewmaster Yoda to teach patience.

Hmmph. Panic. Speed. Guessing. Not these are the way to master the beermaking. A brewmaster aware he is of all things as he brews. Including. Specific. Gravity. Patience these young ones have not. Training they will receive. Yes... learn they will. Patience. Focus. Dedication. A brewmaster craves not speed, but cultivated contemplation. For nine *thousand* years brew beer have I, and judge me do you as hasty? Hmmph!

**Revvy** · 08-19-2009, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFlatline

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because sanitizing everything is a pain in the ass, and it's quicker and easier to skip that part.

Interesting...so taking a spraybottle of your favorite sanitizer, zapping your turkeybaster or winetheif and fermenter lid with a few spritzes of sanitizer before you draw off a sample, respray the lid, seal it up and dump the sample into your test jar, is a "sanitizing pain in the ass?"

Really...three spritzes of sanitizer and about 10 seconds worth of work to know what your beer is doing???

Actually Yodabrewer has been teaching RDWHAHB.

(notice his choice in ale.

)

I think it's more about beerfear, and thinking our beer is weak like a newborn baby....

TheFlatline · 08-19-2009, 08:46 PM

I'm not saying it actually *is* a pain in the butt, but remember there's a lot of ignorance when you're starting out. I think we're both right. People are afraid of mucking with their beer, and then they think about sanitizing and everything and just groan.

I admit I don't take hydrometer readings all the time any more unless I want to know the ABV. If I just want to drink it, I skip the test and leave it in there for 2-3 weeks. Sloppy of me I know, but sometimes I just don't care what the details are and want to drink. Even when I do take FG readings, I wait 2-3 weeks and do it right before I bottle. If I take my reading and it's still in the 20's or 30's, I know I have a stuck fermentation (though usually I can tell before that), and I'll take appropriate actions.