HELP! Our Punishment IPA (high ABV) has stopped fermenting too early

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rockout

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At least, I think it has.

In the primary, I posted a week ago about how we had a starter, but it hadn't started bubbling so we pitched yeast from another tube right in. Then the next day the starter came to life and the advice here was to pitch that in too because our OG was 1.082. So I did.

The airlock bubbled for a couple of days after that, and then it stopped. Completely. I sit and stare at it for two minutes and nothing. (The beer is in a bucket so I can't see it.)

Never had this problem in the previous five batches; in fact, I have a lager fermenting in a secondary in my 2nd fridge at 32 degrees and it's still bubbling 3 weeks later, so I don't know how to deal with this problem. Today is one week after we threw the wort into the bucket, so I would normally be putting it into the secondary today. Do I go ahead with that and pray? Do I put more yeast in? Do I take another gravity reading and post that here? What do I do if it's high or low?

I'm clueless.
 
I think you need to find out how much fermentation has occured before you do anything, meaning a hydrometer reading.
It will not hurt to keep a high gravity beer in primary for several weeks. What were the fermentaion temps?
 
I don't remember your earlier post, but I would highly suggest you take a gravity reading just to see where you are at. It is not uncommon for buckets to get a imperfect seal, allowing the CO2 to escape out somewhere other than the airlock.

A hydro reading will let you know what is going on. The only other factor that might be a problem is if you had a temperature issue and that caused a stuck fermentation. Take the reading first and let us know what you found.
 
Thanks guys. I took a temp and hydrometer reading. Temp in the basement appears to be 68 degrees. The hydrometer read 1.024 (adjusted for liquid temp, which was also about 70 degrees)... so I guess it's been fermenting! I guess I'll chalk it up to maybe an imperfect seal on the bucket, and go ahead and transfer to my carboy for secondary fermentation as if everything was normal.

Does that sound like what you would do? Any other advice?
 
Transfer to a secondary and RDWHAHB.
I stopped using buckets for primary and use glass carboys (despite the weight etc) as you can see what the hell is going on when fermenting.
 
Yeah, I would've - I have 2 carboys - but I'm currently lagering one batch and didn't want to wait 8-10 weeks before drinking my next batch of homebrew. So we threw together this other one and I was forced to use a bucket so that I could use the carboy for secondary.

Thanks for the help fellas.
 
The same thing happened to me with my IPA (not quite as high gravity as yours though). It bubbled for a day or so and just stopped. I couldnt figure out why, so I took a hydro reading. Everything seemed fine, so I put back on the top and let it go. Within a few hours, it was bubbling. Stupid me, it was just a bad seal on the bucket the whole time. It turned out fine...and very tasty!
 
Yeah, ours is in the secondary now and it was bubbling almost instantly. Glad I got some advice here, though, turns out everyone was eactly right about my bad seal.
 
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