Weird airlock activity

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antsp1

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Well after doing mostly Lagers for the past few years, I bought the BB Cali Imperial Ale kit and made it up the other day. (Supposed to be an Arrogant Bastard clone)

Brewing went fine, and I got airlock activity within 6 hours.

I did swap the notty for a us-05, as I like a drier finish.

Well today, roughly 24 hours after pitching, I am getting some weird airlock activity. It seems to surge, or pulse. It will fire out about 2 dozen bubbles, and then pause for 10 seconds or so then repeat.

No, I am not saying anything is wrong with it, as a matter of fact it smells pretty darn good.

I was just wondering if anyone has seen this type of behavior before?

Thanks

Ant
 
that is pretty common, your brew is producing CO2 the air lock is holding back the Co2 until it gets to a point where is has enough pressure to push through the air lock.

What type of airlock are you using ?
 
That's why airlock activity should not be used as a "fermentation gauge" because it is just a vent for releasing the excess CO2 to keep the beer from painting the ceiling and not an "accurate and calibrated" measurment device.

Because as you can see it acts unpredictable...Half my beers never bubble at all...AND they all turn out fine.

The airlock is a valve, while the hydrometer and/refractometer are the only "fermentation gauges."
 
I am using a 3 piece. It's a new setup as all my glass is being used at the moment. I just had never seen it do that before.

K
 
I am using a 3 piece. It's a new setup as all my glass is being used at the moment. I just had never seen it do that before.

K

And you may never again....every fermentation is dfferent.
It's just buildng up co2 enough to need to be vented in bursts, then when all that is vented, it doesn't bubble until the yeastes build up another overabundace of co2.
 
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