Quick quesitons about a strange fermentation.

It is probably not a big deal but my most recent all-grain fermentation is acting a bit oddly. Normally, I get a thick foam and gentle gurgling from the airlock during fermentation. This time, I am getting almost no foam and the solution is almost simmering... It's not simmering from heat, it's just simmering. It's giving off a ridiculous amount of gas.

This is a much darker beer than I have made previously as I used a pound of chocolate malt. The ambient temperature in my apartment is also much higher but the beer is in a room that stays coolish, more or less. Also, I had difficulty filtering this beer during the sparge process. My apparatus became stuck very badly by the size of grain that I had milled and I needed to improvise to sparge effectively under the circumstances. This may have introduced a bit of unwanted air into the solution as I needed to stir a bit.

Any ideas? Or is this simmering thing normal?

to clarify, when I think of simmering I think of bubbling or boiling as this is what happens to stuff when it simmers on the stove, as in "cover and let simmer". is it bubbling/boiling? I'd kinda like to see a vid of that if it is.

It looked exactly like a soup does when simmering on low heat. It was very odd. It's since calmed down, almost too much though. There is not much activity in the airlock and the top of the solution had no foam but some scum, if that makes sense.

Sounds to me like it's just fine. Wait a few days (or a few weeks) and take a hydrometer test.

funny you make this post I am having the same issue with a smoked molasses porter that I made last weekend. Used Cali Yeast and have never seed the simmering effect on any of my beers before. It is first generation yeast so I don't think that had anything to do with it but it was almost like it was on a really light boil or simmering like you said. I hope it ferments out.