weird fermentation

2 gallons motts 100%
2 cups brown sugar
18oz frozen raspberries
Safale s-04

its been in primary for over 30 hours and i have yet to see any bubbles in the airlock, but the surface of the floating raspberries is nice and frothy, and occasionally bubbling, is this normal?


fermenting in a cleaned out target cheeze ball container, the lid isnt pressure rated and barely air tight

kewlio250 said:

fermenting in a cleaned out target cheeze ball container, the lid isnt pressure rated and barely air tight

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Looks like this is your culprit. It can be hard to get a seal on plastic fermentation buckets, and they are made to be air tight. In the beer forum there is a sticky about how the airlock is not a reliable way to track fermentation. Take an SG measurement when in doubt.

I haven't used Mott's juice yet so i'd be interested in how the flavor turns out. Always looking for off season juice bases.

i have the sides of the lid pretty well duct taped, would that help?

most likely it is that the lid isn't airtight. don't get revvy started on airlock bubbles vs fermentation, but the pressure is probably leaking out. while it can fix almost anything, duct tape has not really been tested to be airproof

did you thaw the raspberries first? If they went in cold the shock could take awhile for the yeast to get past.

30 hours isn't a really long time. You might pop some nutrient in there.

Duct tape might help, but there isn't THAT much gas produced, so a small leak would be all you'd need to lose the pressure.

smh said:

did you thaw the raspberries first? If they went in cold the shock could take awhile for the yeast to get past.

30 hours isn't a really long time. You might pop some nutrient in there.

Duct tape might help, but there isn't THAT much gas produced, so a small leak would be all you'd need to lose the pressure.

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raspberries werent thawed completely, but they couldnt have been colder than 45 degrees and its been in a warm room

should i do something about a possible leak?

I'd leave it. The more you fuss the more likely you'll have a problem. Take a gravity reading in a week. You'll probably see some change by then.

smh said:

I'd leave it. The more you fuss the more likely you'll have a problem. Take a gravity reading in a week. You'll probably see some change by then.

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it was around 1.06 when i put it in, gonna measure it in a week when i transfer to secondary and add another package of raspberries, might pitch a bit more yeast in it as well