5 day fermentation too short?

I make a half gallon starter with a vile of liquid yeast and pitched it after it sat for 20hrs. The yeast lagged for about 3hrs before fermentation of the big batch began. It's ~5 days later and the airlock shows maybe 1 bubble every 1.5mins, does this mean my fermentation is done, is five days too short? I kept it at ~70*F the entire time, my first batch fermented in a couple days because I couldn't keep the temp down.

i would leave it at least a week before transferring to secondary...longer if going straight to bottling, even longer if it's a big beer.

what is your original gravity and current specific gravity reading? that's the only way to really tell.

are you using a bucket? if so, i wouldn't trust timing the bubbles.

Yes Im using a bucket and no I don't use my hydrometer too often. When fermenting

a carboy is the krausen what to watch to determine when fermentation is done?

GrundleCruncher said:

Yes Im using a bucket and no I don't use my hydrometer too often. When fermenting

a carboy is the krausen what to watch to determine when fermentation is done?

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Not at all. I've had the krausen fall off my fermenting beer after 3 days, but it was not done at all. The best indication is a steady hydrometer reading over a few days.

I'd get into the habit of using your hydrometer a little more often.

carnevoodoo said:

I'd get into the habit of using your hydrometer a little more often.

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f*!$ that sh#*

GrundleCruncher said:

f*!$ that sh#*

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I guess you could just let it sit for a couple weeks and assume it is always done. I'm sure you'd be fine most of the time.

Airlock activity. Krausen. All of it is like trying to figure out if your car's gas tank is empty by taking the cap off and peering down the hole with a flashlight. You might get a general idea, but it's far from reliable or precise.

I see that you're new here, so I'll hit you with a piece of advice that I got when I first showed up here asking questions about gravity, etc.: get into the habit of using a hydrometer, friend. Otherwise, the amount of help these forum members can be will be severely limited. Take a gravity reading once the wort is cooled, to start...in the future.

In this particular case---here's what I'd recommend: wait another 3 or 4 days just to be sure. Then take a hydrometer reading and record your results. Wait another 3 days, then take another reading. If the two readings are the same, then it's done. If it's changed, then it's still got a little something going on in there...so let it be for another 4 days or so. After 2 weeks, with most ale yeasts, you can be relatively sure that it's okay to rack to secondary.

Good luck, and welcome!

On the rare occasion that I do not use a hydrometer (like today for I dropped another one), I let it ferment until there is really no bubbles within 5 mintues.

As a general rule, leave even quick fermenting beers at least two weeks before bottling. A bubble every 90 seconds is still lots of activity and will probably persist another seven days. All that gas would therefore be trapped if you were to bottle right now and you would end up with bottles of foam at the very least and at the worst, bottle bombs.

The wonders that batch conditioning does to beer should not be underestimated. I like to leave my beer for two weeks in the primary and another one to two in the secondary. If you find this isn't quick enough because you are anxious to drink your beer then brew batches on top of one another so that while one is in the primary another is in the secondary and yet another is carbonating in bottles etc.

GrundleCruncher said:

f*!$ that sh#*

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Well, okay then...just don't be surprised when your questions are answered with "what's your hydrometer say?" Not being snarky, just telling the truth. Back when I wouldn't have anything to do with hydrometers, I got that alot. No fun.

I just don't understand not wanting to use a hydrometer. It isn't difficult or anything.

I don't use a hydrometer most of the time because the beer is still turning out good and I'd be wasting beer and introducing a higher chance of contamination by cracking the lid and sticking in a wine theif. Which I also haven't bought. I think thats my main reason. I have no good way to extract a sample without a high contamination chance.

Rook said:

I don't use a hydrometer most of the time because the beer is still turning out good and I'd be wasting beer and introducing a higher chance of contamination by cracking the lid and sticking in a wine theif. Which I also haven't bought. I think thats my main reason. I have no good way to extract a sample without a high contamination chance.

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If you get the thief with the built in hydrometer tube you can put your sample back provided you sanitize your hydrometer and your tube first, so you won't lose anything from the sample.

You have to understand two things:

1) I am a very poor college student, I could only buy the bare essentials(nearly $400) for brewing with excess scholarship money, I don't consider a wine thief to essential.

2)I have somewhat of a mold problem in my apt., I've only lived here for a few months so I'm still taking care of it. Theres no way I'm opening my fermenter, its in the moldiest room(spare bathroom....women)

I take gravity readings after I cool the wort, when I rack to secondary and when I bottle but these are all reference numbers, I'm already racking by the time I take them. I was looking for a more qualitative way to determine fermentation. When it reaches the end I might use some tubing to make a manometer attachment for my airlock and measure pressure change/time

GrundleCruncher said:

1) I could only buy the bare essentials(nearly $400) for brewing with excess scholarship money, I don't consider a wine thief to essential.

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$400 seems like a lot to spend on bare essentials. Anyhow, how about using a $1.00 turkey baster from the 99 cent store or equivalent?

Since I ferment in a bottling bucket, I just draw my samples from the spigot. I've just been testing only twice: just before I pitch, and at the end of a full week. So far, my FG has been dead on and I immediately move to the secondary. I also chill and taste the second sample, which provides some assurance that nothing has gone horribly awry.

2)I have somewhat of a mold problem in my apt., I've only lived here for a few months so I'm still taking care of it. Theres no way I'm opening my fermenter, its in the moldiest room(spare bathroom....women)

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Making beer in a moldy room sounds like a terrible idea to me. I'd hose that room down with bleach til it was sterile enough to operate in!

Ask question. Get same answer from several people. Respond:

GrundleCruncher said:

f*!$ that sh#*

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Ummm....OK. Then why don't you tell us what the answer is?

GrundleCruncher said:

1) I am a very poor college student, I could only buy the bare essentials(nearly $400) for brewing with excess scholarship money, I don't consider a wine thief to essential.

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No offense, but if you spent $400, you either (a) got a lot of stuff that's was less essential than a wine thief or (b) you paid WAY too much for your stuff.

Keep "eyeballing" your fermentation by checking the bubbles, watching the krausen, or guessing whather it's been "long enough". And when the first batch of bottle bombs starts going off (and it WILL happen), you'll wish you'd spent the $0.99 on the turkey baster, and maybe listened to some people who tried to help you.

This is one of the more helpful forums you'll ever see. People here really want to help you make better beer. But if you ask questions, and then argue with the answers, you're not going to get much benefit.