Alittle worried about how soon it airlock stopped bubbling...

Im brewing a porter (which I hope to turn into a bourbon porter). Original gravity was 1.051 at 80 degrees. The airlock bubbled aggressively for 15 hours and hasnt bubbled since. Its been about 24hrs and my gravity at 76 degrees F is 1.025. The cap has receded. should i be concerned or should i just step back and have a brew and relax?

Bubbling in primary SHOULD slow or stop eventually...Bubbling stopping or slowing down doesn't mean fermentation has stopped it ONLY means bubbling has. An airlock is a VENT, a VALVE for EXCESS CO2. It's not a magic fermentation gauge. When the majority of sugars are eaten in the initial burst of fermentation, lots of co2 is released. As it slows down, bubbling ceases or stops altogether because there's not as much EXCESS Co2 being released.

But that doesn't mean fermentation is over, just that it's slowed down.

Fermentation is not always dynamic...just because you don't SEE anything happening doesn't mean that the yeast aren't happily chewing away at whatever fermentables are in there....the only way to know comes from gravity readings, and nothing else.

Activity, action, bubbles, even krausen can be affected by the envoironment just as much as it being caused by the yeast...so going by that is NOT reliable.

If you want to know what's going on with your beer, then take a gravity reading. The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Counting bubbles does not equate to anything usable in fermentation. It's not like "x bubbles/minute= y gravity points." It just means that co2 is being released....but it could also NOT be bubbling, and still fermenting away.

Relax, leave your beer alone and let it do it's thing for a couple more weeks, and most importantly, IGNORE what your airlock does or doesn't do.

In fact you might find this discussion on the superfluousness of airlocks something that will help you get a handle on this. It was started by a newer brewing who just grasped this concept.

ace54062 said:

Im brewing a porter (which I hope to turn into a bourbon porter). Original gravity was 1.051 at 80 degrees. The airlock bubbled aggressively for 15 hours and hasnt bubbled since. Its been about 24hrs and my gravity at 76 degrees F is 1.025. The cap has receded. should i be concerned or should i just step back and have a brew and relax?

Click to expand...

Btw, what yeast did you use? Temps seem high to me.

ace54062 said:

Im brewing a porter (which I hope to turn into a bourbon porter). Original gravity was 1.051 at 80 degrees. The airlock bubbled aggressively for 15 hours and hasnt bubbled since. Its been about 24hrs and my gravity at 76 degrees F is 1.025. The cap has receded. should i be concerned or should i just step back and have a brew and relax?

Click to expand...

Step back, have a brew, and relax!


I know the instructions make the airlocks seem like a big deal (bubbling, not bubbling) but the truth of the matter is...that means nothing. There could be a hundred different reasons why your brew is/isn't bubbling. None of those reasons mean that your beer is done fermenting.

Give it 2 weeks. Take a reading with your hydrometer. A few days after that take another reading. If the readings are identical (or really close) then your beer is ready for the next step. If you see a drop in the gravity, the yeast are still doing their thing, and give it another 2-3 days.

You'll notice a lot of people on here love to leave their beers in their primary from 3 weeks on up. The yeast are working, trust the process.

Danstar Windsor ale yeast. Temp is as low as i can keep it in the apartment room mates don't understand good beer is worth the power bill.....

Step one -- get better roommates.


Step two -- relax.

ace54062 said:

Danstar Windsor ale yeast. Temp is as low as i can keep it in the apartment room mates don't understand good beer is worth the power bill.....

Click to expand...

Recommended fermentation temperature range for Windsor is 17° to 21°C (64° to 70°F).

You might want to look into a swamp cooler or tub to help cool it down in the future. Bunch of great threads here on a DIY

I brewed a porter that is now in bottles. Bubbles stopped after around 24 hours. I didn't open the lid for another two weeks and when I did, gravity was at around 1.010 - 1.015. I let it stand for another two weeks (actually, I racked it but I know I'll get yelled at for that) and the gravity didn't move until bottling day.

Relax, Don't worry, have a homebrew; above statements about hydrometer readings should be followed; patience my friend patience. Also your roomates suck; beer is more important.

I have an ale fermenting now with Windsor. Was close to 70 deg. Put it in a tub with water and it dropped to 64-66. You can add ice if need be, but just being in water should drop the temp.cheers!