No Bubbles

Brewed my brown ale sunday night, and after 72 hours I haven't heard any bubbling coming from the airlock. I cracked the lid I saw the krausen caked to the sides of the bucket and figured I'd go ahead and take a specific gravity reading to make sure I was making progress. The SG was down from an OG 1.041 to 1.020; my target FG is 1.011. So obviously the air is getting out somewhere else. The lid is snapped on tight, so I have no clue where the air could be leaking...maybe from around the rubber grommet where the airlock fits???

question 1: does my SG reading of 1.020 72 hours after starting sound reasonable?
question 2: has anyone else had a problem like this where they had air leaking from their primary?

1. It's fermenting, so that's good. All brews ferment a bit differently so don't worry.

2. Yeah, you have an air leak somewhere, but the CO2 that's coming off your beer should prevent O2 from getting in. Try to re-seal the lid, check around the airlock and again, don't worry

What kind of fermenter do you have? If its a plastic bucket, then you should reseat the lid. If its a carboy, then you should get a "Carboy Hood", that will eliminate the problem.

I have just done my first brew and I didn't see any bubbles - but it is definitely alcoholic as I discovered last night!

I brewed in a plastic bin, I think I must have had a leak somewhere. Also, I was taking brew out of the tap at the bottom of the bin to do hydrometer readings. I think this caused a low pressure inside the bin, and therefore any gas that was given off was re-establishing equilibrium and therefore did not escape through the airlock.

I had the same thing happen with my nut brown ale kit i brewed in a plastic bucket. My kit was a 2.5 gallon batch fermenting in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I got a few bubbles 8 hours later but then nothing. My hydrometer reading after 48 hours was 1.018 and was shooting for 1.013. I'm pretty sure my bucket did not have a leak because when it was closed and i pushed on the top of the lid it caused the air lock to bubble as the pressure from me pushing on the lid pushed air out. I plan to bottle my batch on Friday (4 days after no bubbles). Wish me luck and good luck to you.

I actually had a tiny hole in my carboy cap when it arrived brand new from the shop! I super glued it after finding it and it works like new.

This is actually the second time this has happened to me. I've only brewed four batches, and its happened on the last two. The first time it happened, I didn't have a hydrometer, and went off taste alone to determine if it had fermented at all. Unfortunately I ended up transferring the beer to a secondary carboy, then washing and repitching the yeast that was left in the primary. Thank you all for your input and help, its always nice to know I'm not the only one experiencing things like this.