No bubbles

Hey everyone.

This past Saturday, my friend and I completed our second all grain brew (kolsch). Everything seemed to go pretty well. We had a 60 percent efficiency which s what we were shooting for. We also hit our OG reading right on the nose. We got down to a proper pitching temp and pitched white labs German ale / kolsch yeast.

It's been 4 days and we still have no bubbles in the airlock. Should we be worried?

Thanks for any advice and info.

Cheers

Josh

Bubbles have no bearing on fermentation. The only thing you should be concerned with is gravity readings.

Kolsch yeast is kind of slow but, I would expect some bubbling by now. Are you positive your lid and airlock are all air tight? The air isn't escaping elsewhere is it?

Jbatten22 said:

Hey everyone.

This past Saturday, my friend and I completed our second all grain brew (kolsch). Everything seemed to go pretty well. We had a 60 percent efficiency which s what we were shooting for. We also hit our OG reading right on the nose. We got down to a proper pitching temp and pitched white labs German ale / kolsch yeast.

It's been 4 days and we still have no bubbles in the airlock. Should we be worried?

Thanks for any advice and info.

Cheers

Josh

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Is this batch in an ale pail type bucket? Those are notorious for leaks. If that's the case, no worries, the co2 is just finding the easy way out, which isn't the airlock.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Is this batch in an ale pail type bucket? Those are notorious for leaks. If that's the case, no worries, the co2 is just finding the easy way out, which isn't the airlock.

Click to expand...

This +1. If no bubbles at all after, say, a week - take a gravity reading. If it has changed, you are fine (or if you open the lid and see krausen or krausen residue, you are fine).

It is indeed one of the ale pale type. As far as I can tell the lid and airlock are on tight.

I will take a reading on Saturday to see if there is a change. I just wasn't sure what to do. I am still new to brewing in general let alone all grain, and this is the first time I have come across this issue.

Thanks for the quick responses. It's greatly appreciated.

Jbatten22 said:

It is indeed one of the ale pale type. As far as I can tell the lid and airlock are on tight.

I will take a reading on Saturday to see if there is a change. I just wasn't sure what to do. I am still new to brewing in general let alone all grain, and this is the first time I have come across this issue.

Thanks for the quick responses. It's greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

9 times outta ten when these issues come up, it's a leaky bucket. Those lids snap on, but don't really seal. Take a quick peek, you may not need to take a reading to see it's fermenting or has fermenter.

FWIW, HomeBrew Heaven has buckets with lids that do seal, the lids have an 'o' ring that usually seals up quite nicely. I've never had a leak when I use their bucket, conversely, I don't think I've never not had a leak when using my brewers best ale pail lids. YMMV.

I have one bucket that won't seal all that well, the airlock never shows activity, but if you open it up you can see that it's fermenting quite nicely. I always check 24 hours after I pitch and if there is no activity in the airlock or no Kräusen then I worry.

This last batch I switched to better bottles instead of buckets and I couldn't be happier.

Kolsch yeast should form a big fat krausen. Look inside there. If there's no sign of krausen after 2 days, I'd get busy adding more yeast!

What temp is your wort at?

Did you make a starter with your yeast? Are you sure it was alive and healthy?