Airlock showing new activity.

[manortc]

I brewed a batch of a wheat beer about 3 weeks ago. It started at 1.042 OG and I use windsor yeast. The airlock bubbled good for a couple of days, then slowed significantly to a bubble every couple of minutes or so, maybe even slower. I let it sit for a few weeks and last night I took a SG reading or 1.006 (lower that I expected Windsor to go). This morning, the airlock is back to bubbling every 12-13 seconds and has been pretty steady for at least the last 5 hours. I was hoping to bottle this today but now wondering if I should wait for this new activity in the airlock to slow before bottling?

 

[mcaple1]

strange...did the ambient air temp warm up...could have resulted in "sleeping" yeast to wake up.

 

[LKABrewer]

Or warming up and the co2 coming out of suspension.

 

[rycov]

I brewed a batch of a wheat beer about 3 weeks ago. It started at 1.042 OG and I use windsor yeast. The airlock bubbled good for a couple of days, then slowed significantly to a bubble every couple of minutes or so, maybe even slower. I let it sit for a few weeks and last night I took a SG reading or 1.006 (lower that I expected Windsor to go). This morning, the airlock is back to bubbling every 12-13 seconds and has been pretty steady for at least the last 5 hours. I was hoping to bottle this today but now wondering if I should wait for this new activity in the airlock to slow before bottling?

check the gravity again fbefore bottling

 

[marc06]

If its that low of a gravity, and looks like it may be fermenting its a good chance you have an infection.

 

[Revvy]

Let me count the ways that happen and are mentioned daily on here, that muddies up the water and requires a grav reading.

Often an airlock will bubble if the fermenter has been disturbed in some way, like a change in temperature, change in atmospheric pressure, the cat brushing against it, opening it up to take a hydro reading, any number of things.

Or you could indeed have fermentation happening, since maybe your fermentation was laggy and a change in temp restarted fermentation.

Airlock bubbling only tells you that co2 is coming out of the airlock, it is not telling you why. And there's various reasons. That's why it's not a good idea to equate airlock bubbling with fermentation...It could be because it is fermenting, or it could not be because of fermentation...so it's not a trustworthy tool.

 

[KevyWevy]

If its that low of a gravity, and looks like it may be fermenting its a good chance you have an infection.

agreed. check the gravity and taste before you bottle. unless you like sour beers it's probably not worth your time if it tastes bad an the gravity has gone down even more.

 

[Revvy]

You know guys it's really hard to ruin your beer. Infection is the LEAST Common reason his airlock might have started, I listed all the more common reason that we see happen on here daily.

In all my years on here, we have actually seen very few instances of true infection. Our beer is much more resiliant than that...More than most new brewers (even the one's trying to help by offering advice) may believe.

It's spring right now, weather is changing, even ambient temp and atmospheric pressure changes....that more often causes an airlock to suddenly start bubbling than getting an infection.

I want to encourage you to read this, and this, and maybe you'll be less quick to just jump on the infection bandwagon.

And more importantly before you give advice, take the "worst case scenario" that you've read in Papazian or Palmer off the table.....start with the assumption that nothing is wrong...THEN start looking at what the poster is saying and look to find out where the new brewer's perception that something is wrong is flawed, and proved why. Sometimes you need to ask questions, but usually the clues are right there...

"My beer's not carbed" 99.999% of the time the new brewer is openning before 3 weeks, or storing them below 70 degrees.

"My yeast is dead" or "THere's no activity" the op is referring to airlocks NOT real signs of fermentation liken gravity drops...OR it's been less than 72 hours, so he hasn't passed the window of lag time.

"My airlock started again" usually means that he's disturbed the fermenter in some way, OR there's been an enviornmental change.

"I racked to secondary and my beer has something growing on top now" or "floating on top now" either he's racked too soon and the beer is re-krausening And HE'S NEVER SEEN KRAUSEN BEFORE SINCE HE BREWS IN A BUCKET, or it's yeast rafts.

"My fermentation is stuck" He usually means his airlock has stopped bubbling, or has slowed down, like it normally does.....

"My beer tastes crappy" usually means he opened it less than three - 6 weeks and his beer is green.....

Always look first to the normal noobish mistakes folks make, NOT that there is something wrong...

 

[Revvy]

He gives you the answer to why his airlock started bubblinq right here;

I let it sit for a few weeks and last night I took a SG reading or 1.006 (lower that I expected Windsor to go). This morning, the airlock is back to bubbling every 12-13 seconds and has been pretty steady for at least the last 5 hours. I was hoping to bottle this today but now wondering if I should wait for this new activity in the airlock to slow before bottling?

The co2 layer was in perfect stasis with the environment, then he disturbed it when he took a grav reading....pretty simple...


That's the thing new brewers do, you don't think that something like airlock bubbling is perfectly normal, especially if they just did something, they want to instantly assume something's wrong AND they fail to look that what they recently did as a cause for whatever they're worried about. They don't go "Hey I just move my beer" (or bumped the fermenter) THEREFORE I probably just disturbed something...."

YOU always seem to want to default to the worst case scenario.....He opened the bucket to take a reading, then he put the lid back on, PUSHING AIR INTO THE FERMENTER, which the co2 is now pushing back out.....An airlock is a vale, not a magic fermentation gauge....It's a vent to realease excess gas.....

 

[manortc]

Thanks for the info. I thought it was probably mostly due to the fact that I disturbed the fermenter and took SG reading. The ambient temp may have warmed up a bit, but not much. Maybe 2-3 degrees max as I keep it in a relatively cool closet. With the SG where it is at 1.006, I doubt it's still fermenting, and my sanitation techniques have never led me to an infection before (not saying they won't though). I've seen airlocks show some activity after being disturbed, but they usually settle down within an hour or so. Just hadn't seen this scenario before.