Fermentation Speed

I am fermenting my first home brew and it seems like the fermentation lock is not bubbling as rabidly as i would like, there is about 1 bubble per second. What is a good fermentation speed?

Relax. Deep breaths. Just let it happen. The yeasts know what they are doing. It will start off slow, pick up speed, slow down again. Counting the bubbles/min in an airlock is a notoriously bad way of measuring fermentation, hydrometer is still the best.

How long has fermentatiob been going?

fvoris said:

I am fermenting my first home brew and it seems like the fermentation lock is not bubbling as rabidly as i would like, there is about 1 bubble per second. What is a good fermentation speed?

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Bubbling means absolutely nothing, so it really doesn't matter what you would like...Walk away from your fermenter for a week...everything is fine.

Read this...and stop thinking about your timeframe...you're dealing with living organisms...they have their own agenda.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=724249&postcount=9

a good fermentation speed is when your hydrometer reading is consistent for 3 straight days.

Don't rely on the airlock, and if you do --> duck! You'll certainly hear about it from the veterans (but usually in a polite way)

damn Revvy......fast typer!

Revvy said:

Bubbling means absolutely nothing, so it really doesn't matter what you would like...Walk away from your fermenter for a week...everything is fine.

Read this...and stop thinking about your timeframe...you're dealing with living organisms...they have their own agenda.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=724249&postcount=9

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Damn. And here I was going to come in here and say that the proper answer was 137.3 distinct bubbles per second, and that anything else was turning your beer into POISON.

TheFlatline said:

Damn. And here I was going to come in here and say that the proper answer was 137.3 distinct bubbles per second, and that anything else was turning your beer into POISON.

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ohhhh darn...that's a good one..And they have to ship the beer to us for "proper disposal".but we don't want to spank the n00bs too much for their impatience, we can't use the word poison, since nothing deadly can grow in beer....just really really nasty tasting

Revvy said:

ohhhh darn...that's a good one..And they have to ship the beer to us for "proper disposal".but we don't want to spank the n00bs too much for their impatience, we can't use the word poison, since nothing deadly can grow in beer....just really really nasty tasting

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Oh I know, I'm just being a brat.

And yes, the next step is to strongly recommend that they bottle and ship you the contaminated beer for biological processing to turn it into inert ammonia/saline solution which is then safe for disposal.