Is it normal to have no bubbles in your airlock?

I just transferred a 3 gallon batch from one carboy to another 3 gallon carboy and realized I really needed to top up the liquid.... I had tons of airspace and I know that's a bad thing when you go to secondary. The guy at the brew store suggested that I top up with some fresh juice... So I ran to the store and ended up having to put almost 3 quarts if fresh pear in. I took a hydrometer reading before I racked and it was 1.005... After I racked It I put the bung on properly and held it down with some zip ties to make sure it was in good and put in fresh batch of vodka halfway up the airlock...

It has been almost 4 hours since I racked it to the secondary and I have not seen one bubble in the airlock.... Not a single one???
Is this normal?

Don't panic and remember the Cider Brewer's number one rule - Patience!!!

I have racked to secondary before and not had any visible action for 24-36 hours... It will come... Temperature and sugar level of the top up juice will play a part. You'll be right!

Fossey said:

Don't panic and remember the Cider Brewer's number one rule - Patience!!!

I have racked to secondary before and not had any visible action for 24-36 hours... It will come... Temperature and sugar level of the top up juice will play a part. You'll be right!

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This was especially true for my all pear cider I am in secondary with at the moment. Took a while to get going in secondary and stopped already. I racked it on 7 Dec, couple days to show some action and has fully stopped again already.

Fossey said:

This was especially true for my all pear cider I am in secondary with at the moment. Took a while to get going in secondary and stopped already. I racked it on 7 Dec, couple days to show some action and has fully stopped again already.

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Why does this happen? I know there is enough sugar but isn't there still enough yeast floating around to activate with the sugar even after you go to Secondary and get it off the yeast cake?

Update: It is the next morning and I see about one bobble every 10 seconds in my airlock....
Very slow and still kind of concerns me.... But if you guys say it's okay I'll just let it ride...

BadgerBrigade said:

Update: It is the next morning and I see about one bobble every 10 seconds in my airlock....
Very slow and still kind of concerns me.... But if you guys say it's okay I'll just let it ride 👹

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It's ok. It's a very small amount of sugar, so you won't see much activity.

Yooper said:

It's ok. It's a very small amount of sugar, so you won't see much activity.

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2 gallons was in there: fermented
I added almost another full gallon? Isn't that TONS more sugar?

This is a 3 gallon batch, not 5....

No, it's well under a pound. Pear juice runs 25 gm of sugar per 250 ml.

david_42 said:

No, it's well under a pound. Pear juice runs 25 gm of sugar per 250 ml.

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Nice! Thanks David!

P.s. is that Santas little helper in your avatar?