shaking the filled carboy?

i brewed a beer this weekend w/ an OG of about 1.076. blegian pilsen malt straight thru. anyway we CFC'd the wort, stirred a lot and pitched safeale 33. the fermentation was vigorous enough 24 hrs later to push trub thru blowoff, but 72 hrs later there is no action in blowoff unless i shake carboy. is it good or bad to shake the carboy and get all that stuff shaken up.

thanks so much everyone...

You can give it a good swirl every so often. Try to keep the splashing to a minimum though. You should of purged all the O2 out already, but I still only stick with swirling

the shaking you are doing is simply knocking carbonation out of solution. The bubbles you are getting doing that have nothing to do with the fermentation. I would advise you not to shake, as you don't want to get more O2 into the wort at this point (will cause oxidation). A gentle swirl now and then to get the yeast back into suspension is a good idea.

Don't worry at all about the bubbles. You can have bubbles without fermentation going on for a number of reasons. You can also have fermentation without much in the way of bubbles. For a beer of that gravity, leave it in primary for at least 2 weeks, 3 weeks wouldn't hurt. Check the gravity at that time to see if you are close to your expected final gravity. A beer like this should end up at about 7% ABV, so expect to let this one age a couple of months after kegging or bottling.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company