bubble completely stopped

so its day 2 and there is 0 bubbling from my fermenter? i checked the gravity and its decreased? im guessing the reading was wrong. i still plan on leaving it in for the 7-10 days. also when i tasted it, it was extremely watery. any ideas?

Can you tell us the recipe, starting gravity, and what your last measurement was?

I am on day 2-3 of my first all grain batch. Used a starter, pitched Sat. evening. Today Bubbles have all but stopped. But I will leave it in the primary for at least 3 weeks.

the original reading was 1.040 and im making a coopers Australian ale. ive kept it at a consistant 65-68 degrees.

Zwan05 said:

the original reading was 1.040 and im making a coopers Australian ale. ive kept it at a consistant 65-68 degrees.

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What was the reading you took after it stopped bubbling? (bubbling is no indication of fermentation activity - trust your hydrometer)

1.020 keep in mind this is my first time

it will be fine. just let it sit for a week or 2 longer.

So what? The bubbling just means that it is venting excess CO2, nothing more. If it's not bubbling, that only means that it is not producing enough co2 to need to vent.

Nothing else....

If your airlock was bubbling and stopped---It doesn't mean fermentation has stopped.

If you airlock isn't bubbling, it doesn't mean your fermentation hasn't started....

If your airlock starts bubbling, it really doesn't matter.

If your airlock NEVER bubbles, it doesn't mean anything is wrong or right.

Your airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it is a VALVE to release excess co2. And the peak of fermentation has already wound down, so there's simply no need to vent off any excess co2.

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that any-thing's wrong,, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working diligently away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years.

You'll be much happier if you get out of that habit, of worrying about your airlock...you will find that fermentations rarely don't take off, or just Stop...In fact I've never had a beer not ferment. BUT half of my fermentations, spread out across 9 different fermenters, never blip once in the airlock.

What is happening is that fermentation is slowing down, and therefore not produce excess co2.

Just leave it alone for at least another 8 days, they you can take a hydrometer reading and decide if you want to secondary it...OR you can do what many many many of us do and leave your beer alone for a month, that will let the beer finish fermenting and then let the yeast clean up after themselves, that way they will get rid of all the byproducts of fermentation that often lead to off flavors, and if new/impatient brewers move to soon, they end up stuck with.

Even John Palmer talks about this in How To Bew;

How To Brew said:

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.

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Everything is perfectly fine.

I hope you have that saved to notepad Revvy. Hope you don't sit down and type it everytime.

greeneyed said:

I hope you have that saved to notepad Revvy. Hope you don't sit down and type it everytime.

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LOL, I was thinking that he has a script programmed for one of his function keys that spits out that reply. But God Bless Revvy for doing it, because I didn't get that concept until probably the third time I read his replies in other threads.

Zwan05 said:

1.020 keep in mind this is my first time

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1.040 down to 1.020 just means you're nearing the end so fermentation has slowed and thus offgassing of co2 has slowed/stopped. Nothing is wrong, just leave it alone and check it again in a week and you should be at your target gravity. When your gravity is the same 3 days in a row its done. You can go ahead and bottle at that point, or let it sit a couple more weeks to further condition and let the yeast do some cleanup work.

what should my target gravity be? if i leave it in for the 2-4 weeks instead of the 1 week recommended would that affect the alcohol content? Also whats the different between bottling after 2 weeks int he primary and letting it sit int he bottles for 2 weeks and doing primary for 3 weeks and the bottles for 1 week?

The final gravity should be listed in the recipe. Leaving it longer wont affect the alcohol content - when the yeast are done, they're done. What will happen is the yeast will start to work cleaning up some by-products like diacetyl. Time in the primary is disconnected from time in bottles. The beer will continue to age and the yeast can do some of that cleanup work in the bottles, but you can't cut bottle time short by leaving it in primary longer. One of the main purposes of the bottle conditioning time is to allow the yeast to eat the priming sugar. Since its in a sealed bottle and not a vented carboy, the CO2 given off is trapped, and will be dissolved into solution in the beer, thus carbonating the beer. Some of the watery flavor you tasted when you tasted your sample is due to it being uncarbonated.