what happened?

I put my first batch into primary yesterday afternoon. I came home early this morning (late last night) to find the blow off bubbling away.

Sometime in the last couple hours it's stopped completely. I was going to put the airlock on when I realized that it wasn't going at all. Nothing like a bubble every 30 seconds or a min. Zero bubble action.

Total time in primary has only been about 30 hours. This can't be right can it?

Yes, that can happen. I've had beers ferment out in 24 hours or less. But even after the major part of fermentation is over, the yeast are still busy working in there. The Sg will drop a couple of points, and the yeast will clean up after themselves, eating their own waste products (like diacetyl), so I still leave it in the primary for at least a week or 10 days.

I always have my beer under airlock, though. Don't you use one?

My plan was to use a blow-off tube until the aggressive fermentation was over and then switch to an airlock, as I could avoid a mess this way. Like I said this is my first batch so I'm not positive it's the right thing to do...

Remember, airlock activity, or lack thereof is not a true indication of fermentation...The hydrometer is the only way to tell....

Some beers for whatever reason never bubble the airlock, some sound like a machine gun....it really proves nothing. The excess oxygen trapped in the fermentor when you pitched your wort may have simply been outgassing or was being pushed out by the new co2 forming...Or the temp in the fermentor was simply equailzing....

Some ferment rapidly...some take forever...It's really hard to tell....

After a week start taking your hydro readings, then you'll know if it is done or not...until then rdwhahb!

rdwhahb... words to live by! I just gotta keep 'em in mind.

I guess I just feel like I'm the dad driving his new baby home from the hospital, going 15 mph. Everytime I hit a bump I'm worried something went wrong. I had just never heard of bubbling stopping/slowing so soon but I guess every brew is different! And I'm only a n00b so what do I know anyway!

Thanks for the help and reassurance guys, cheers!

I had the same issue with my first batch. Took a reading and my sg was still a bit high, let it hang out for a few more days and it dropped without so much as one little bubble in the airlock. Take what I say with a grain of salt though since I am very much a newb, but I would give it some more time then take reading.

hostileNabusive said:

rdwhahb... words to live by! I just gotta keep 'em in mind.

I guess I just feel like I'm the dad driving his new baby home from the hospital, going 15 mph. Everytime I hit a bump I'm worried something went wrong. I had just never heard of bubbling stopping/slowing so soon but I guess every brew is different! And I'm only a n00b so what do I know anyway!

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Just remember, beer is a living thing, it is really nothing more than yeasts eating, pooping and procreating after all, and all living things set their own agenda.

Things like the 1-2-3 rule or 3 weeks@70 are just rules of thumb based on our observations of the cycles of these organisms.

The best advice I ever saw on here was this....I should add it to my sigline.

It really hits the nail on the head about "n00b brewer panic syndrome!"

Bobby_M said:

You do know that as a new brewer, it's your job to insanely worry that you have the only environment on earth where a billion yeast cells can't figure out how to find all that sugar that they crave. ;-)

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Haha. That pretty much sums my thoughts up!

Originally posted by Revvy
Just remember, beer is a living thing, it is really nothing more than yeasts eating, pooping and procreating after all, and all living things set their own agenda.

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Wait... so I'm drinking poop?

hostileNabusive said:

Haha. That pretty much sums my thoughts up!



Wait... so I'm drinking poop?

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well pisss and exhale anyway:cross:

If it still tastes really sweet you can try shaking the fermenter around the rouse the yeast and get them back to work. But don't do this if fermentation is done or you'll get the beer oxidized.

hostileNabusive said:

Wait... so I'm drinking poop?

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Leave the poop behind when you rack. Now the yeast farts are good, take them with you when you rack.

What haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapened.
idk if thats going to make sense to anyone here.