Revvy said:As useless as an airlock is a a gauge of fermentation in ales, it's even more useless for lagers. Remember gas EXPANDS when warm and contracts when cold. So therefore since an airlock is really only a vent to release EXCESS co2, there often isn't any co2 that needs to vent out, because it's contracted by the cold of the fermentation.
So it's even more important to use you HYDROMETER, to determine "activity," since a decrease in gravity really is the only way to know for sure.
Revvy said:It's a diagnostic tool. You're not sure what your beer is doing, right? Then if that's the case, you taking the reading will tell you what your beer is doing, and therefore either ease your mind, or will till you if there's a problem.
I always make the analogy that taking a gravity reading is like a doctor using a tool like and ekg or an x-ray- you can't always rely on your senses to know what's going on. An airlock may or stop bubbling due to everything from barometric and temp changes, a leak in the bucket, to a truck rolling down your street, so it's NEVER a reliable indicator of what's happening.
But a hydrometer reading is. So if you've got a concern then use it.
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