o noes... my airlock stopped bubbling early?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jam

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Location
Buffalo, NY
I brewed my first batch ever on fri night, a scotch ale. I sealed it and put in the airlock at around 1 am. I woke up sat at about 11 and checked on it- the airlock was bubbling happily, about once every 3 seconds. checked on it last night and it was the same, about once every 3 to 5 seconds. well I woke up this morning around 12 noon and the airlock is barely bubbling. maybe once every 1 to 2 minutes. I'm worried! is my brew ok? should I transfer to the secondary now?

thanks guys!
 
Oh noes, you are relying on airlock bubbling as a meaning of something!!!!!!!!

Don't

Remember, you should never use a cheap chinese plastic airlock as a "fermentation Gauge," it's not...It's an airlock, nothing more, a VALVE to release excess CO2, to keep from blowing the lid off the fermentor...If it's not bubbling that just means that there's not enough CO2 to climb out of the airlock, or the CO2 is just forming a nice cushion on top of the beer like it's supposed to, or the airlock is askew, or it is leaking out the cheap rubber grommet, or you have a leak in the bucket seal...all those are fine...if CO2 is getting out then nothing's getting in....

Over half of my beers have had no airlock activity...

The only gauge of fermentaion is your hydrometer. And it's too soon to worry about it. Wait til 10 days after pitching if you want to bother checking then...

More than likely fermentation is winding down, hence the bubbling slowing down...the co2 isn't trying to escape...now let the beer sit for a few weeks to clean itself up and all is well...

This is a good blog to read....http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Think_evaluation_before_action/

If you are going to secondary (though most of us don't we leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks) you wait til the hydrometer hasn't changed for 3 days...usually around the 10th day after yeast pitching..
 
-RDWHAHB
-Hydrometer knows all, dont rely on airlock
-Have patience, give it atleast 7 days before you go checking the gravity.
 
Hello!

First, congrats on the first batch! :mug:

Second, listen to Revvy. His advice has yet to steer me wrong. When I was prepping for my first solo batch, I thought I would be watching the air-lock with a stop watch and a ton of other equally rigid (and silly) techniques. The more time I spend lurking on this forum, the more I am learning to use the force...oh yeah, and a hydrometer. :)

Fast and rigorous fermentations are pretty normal and can be mighty active early on only to settle down just as fast. Leave it alone for 7-10 days and then use the hydro...

Hope that helps!

-Tripod
 
PHEW! awesome guys, thanks for all the help, you've really put my mind at ease haha

so i'll wait a week or so before transfering to secondary. if i do at all after reading a bit...

thanks again!!
 
PHEW! awesome guys, thanks for all the help, you've really put my mind at ease haha

so i'll wait a week or so before transfering to secondary. if i do at all after reading a bit...

thanks again!!

Post again after you wait and let us know how it went!

-Tripod
 
alright i transfered to the secondary without an issue, but the air lock is not bubbling at all! im really kind of worried, is this normal? it was bubbling like crazy for the first 3 days but now nothing, no bubbling at all....
 
When I made up my apfelwein, the airlock bubbled for about half a day and then stopped. It came out great.

I made my brown biscut ale in the same fermenter. The airlock NEVER MOVED the entire time it was in there. It finished up fine too.
 
No worries, mate.

I'd actually be surprised to hear that you had much activity at all in the secondary. Any little bit you see now would probably just be out-gassing anyway and would not be very active.

Just curious...did you take a hydro reading when you transferred?

-Tripod
 
Hey guys quick question about my first batch of brew. I'm looking at a brown bage resedue on the botom of my lid. Also, my air lock bubbled the second day alot but not much after and the water in the lock turned into a beer coloured yellow. These couple things are worring me and i was wondeirng if anyone could give me some thoughts/advise/tips.
Thanks alot.
 
Hey guys quick question about my first batch of brew. I'm looking at a brown bage resedue on the botom of my lid. Also, my air lock bubbled the second day alot but not much after and the water in the lock turned into a beer coloured yellow. These couple things are worring me and i was wondeirng if anyone could give me some thoughts/advise/tips.
Thanks alot.

The brown "residue is called krausen, and that is the remnants of it, it means everything was fine, that fermentation happened. And like we say over and over airlock bubbling is irrevalant if it slowed down and stopped it just means that excess CO2 isn't needing to blowoff.....nothing more.
 
i know this is an old post but wanted to +1 on everything that's been said above regarding the hydrometer being the best instrument for determining fermentation.

For example, i'm 72 hours into primary fermentation on a big Belgian Strong Ale with an OG of 1.094. Was concerned that there was no bubbling but remembered good ol Revvy's advice and took hydrometer reading and saw that its already dropped to 1.054...
 
I had the same concern. I brewed my first batch of American Amber Ale on Saturday, and it stopped bubbling today. After reading this, my mind is at peace! I can't wait. The instructions provided recommended to transfer to secondary after 4-5 days. Would the experienced recommend I wait longer? Thanks!
 
I had the same concern. I brewed my first batch of American Amber Ale on Saturday, and it stopped bubbling today. After reading this, my mind is at peace! I can't wait. The instructions provided recommended to transfer to secondary after 4-5 days. Would the experienced recommend I wait longer? Thanks!

Yep. I'd say wait three weeks then either bottle right from the primary or go to secondary for a week or two if you want.

but...

This being your first batch, you may have a stroke trying to wait that long (we were all there once too) so if you can manage 3 or 4 days past when the gravity stabilizes and then go to secondary you'll be doing just fine. :D
 

Latest posts

Back
Top