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CatHead · 11-23-2012, 12:16 AM

Brewed my first beer two weeks ago and my fermentation stopped after about 3 days and now my airlock is bubbling pretty hard. Does this happen often? Should I be concerned?

**helibrewer** · 11-23-2012, 01:03 AM

Has the temperature changed? Have you taken any type of gravity readings since fermentation has started?

CatHead · 11-23-2012, 02:33 AM

The temperature in the house has been a pretty constant 72 degrees give or take a degree or two. The gravity at brewing was 1.045 and was 1.022 a day or two after I thought fermentation stopped and was 1.021 Monday. So it was below what was expected but I had read on here about gravities never reaching what they were expected to. I will take another this weekend or when bubbling stops.

jmichaeldesign · 11-23-2012, 02:38 AM

From 1.045 it should get down to 1.010 - 1.012

CatHead · 11-23-2012, 02:50 AM

That is what the recipe said that it should go to 1.011 and what I was expecting. Any idea why it may have stopped and/or restarted? 1 other piece of info that may be important, the first day the fementation caused it to get hot. Don't know exact temp. but was warm to touch.

jmichaeldesign · 11-23-2012, 01:24 PM

If the temp in your house is 72 the fermentation may go up to 77-78 but I can't imagine it producing much more heat than that. It may have never stopped. Airlocks are a terrible way of indicating activity. A tiny leak can stop it from moving. The beer can release lots of co2 even when there's no actual fermentation happening and make the air lock bubble.

What yeast are you using? If somehow the fermentor was warm to the touch then it somehow got way to hot. Warm to the touch would indicate 100 degrees or higher.

I'd say let it go for another week and go ahead and bottle it up. Its your first beer so you'll think its awesome. Then make some more and figure out a way to keep fermenting beer in the low to mid 60's. 70 is the upper limit for american ale yeast, and you can get some of the belgian strains way up there, but they still need to be in the high 60s for the first two or three days of fermentation. My top three things for making good beer goes like this.

1. Fermentation Temperature
2. Proper pitching rates (enough yeast)
3. Sanitation

These three things are all equally important.

CatHead · 11-23-2012, 04:25 PM

I don't remember the brand of yeast, it was the cheap one that came with the kit. I will definitely at least upgrade to premium dry yeast next. The side of the bucket was definitely a little warmer than before I pitched yeast and than it was the next day. The airlock is still bubbling away today and quite regularly, a bubble every 2 or 3 seconds. I have read on here about stuck fermentations and I am hoping thats what it is and not some wild yeast or bacteria restarting it. Just found it kind of weird but being new I guess a lot of things are weird.