Fermentation question...

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GeorgiaTiger

GeorgiaTiger

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Does fermentation speed up and slow down in spurts? After I pitched the yeast last night, nothing was happening for a few hours, which I expected. This morning, the stars an/water solution in my airlock was bubbling through the lid of the airlock and it was "burping" a LOT...now it has slowed down to about 1 per second and a half. Is this normal? Temp on side of bucket says 72. Recipe says to ferment between 65-80 degrees, which pretty much means room temp. Our inside air is set to 68 (normal for us).
 
GeorgiaTiger said:
Does fermentation speed up and slow down in spurts? After I pitched the yeast last night, nothing was happening for a few hours, which I expected. This morning, the stars an/water solution in my airlock was bubbling through the lid of the airlock and it was "burping" a LOT...now it has slowed down to about 1 per second and a half. Is this normal? Temp on side of bucket says 72. Recipe says to ferment between 65-80 degrees, which pretty much means room temp. Our inside air is set to 68 (normal for us).
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72 is pretty warm, and at the higher end of optimum fermentation temperature for ales. It really depends on the yeast strain, though. If the temperature on the side of the bucket is 72, then that would be ok. But you don't really want it to go up to 80!

Yeast LOVE warm temperatures, so they'll ferment quickly in warm temperatures. I've had a too-warm fermentation ferment over night! But usually it's a slow start, a medium quick fermentation for a couple of days, then a slower finish.
 
Yeah, it is 68 in the house and that bucket is sitting in a dark corner away from any type of heat source. This one is a Hefe. The Oatmeal stout is in the sunroom where it stays around 60-62 this time of year. That one is in the LBK.
 
Here is what it looks like now - It was 4 times that much last night (temp last night was more like 75-76 in bucket).

[ame]http://youtu.be/NnHfvq7dOzM[/ame]
 
I brewed a blonde ale on Sunday and pitched two packets of yeast. By mid-afternoon yesterday (about 18 hours after pitching), the airlock was burping 3 times per second. By this morning, it had slowed to 1.5 burps per second. Although this is the fasted burping among my 5 batches to date, the pattern has been similar. A period of relatively no airlock activity, the airlock begins to bubble, the action speeds to a peak pretty quickly, then the action slows gradually.
 

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