fermentation stopped

Hi i am new to brewing I have done one full extract already and loved it. i recently ordered a chocolate milk stout, full extract again. I brewed it up and after putting it in my fermenter, which is a 5 gal bucket with an airlock (I am broke like no joke lol) I noticed after a day it was bubbling way more than my first batch. the next day i found the lid had a very small crack in it and it was spraying out the crack. ( it was a 5 gal kit so the wort was about an inch from the top.) i put some ducttape over the crack to stop the spraying and now a day later it isnt bubbling at all. if you stand over it you can deffinatly smell it so i'm wondering if it could be coming out of the crack still?

Let me know what you guys think might be wrong. i'm really worried it is ruined.

thanks, brendan

 

Sounds normal to me. Do you have a hydrometer? Airlocks are a really poor measure of activity, especially on buckets.

 

You may still be getting some CO2 through the crack which would explain why it's not bubbling through the airlock. However, I would bet that the fermentation is either finished or just slowing down. I've had some really good beers that stopped bubbling less than 48 hours into the fermentation. Keep in mind that even though there aren't as many bubbles, the yeast are still working. What temp are you fermenting at?

 

i did have a hydrometer, but manageged to break it.. im going to kansas city in the morning so im going to try to find one while im there. id say its around 70-72 degrees where its at right now

 

70-72 is too high. You should be fermenting closer to 60F. Temperature is a catalyst to yeast activity, so it is likely that your fermentation is actually already complete at those temps. HOWEVER, yeast also give off more off-flavors when they are stressed by speeding up at the higher temps, so you are likely to have some off-flavors on this batch and any other batch you ferment too high. The good news is that since this is a stout, the body of the beer will likely mask the off flavors. If it doesn't, just give this one an extra 2-4 weeks to condition once you have it bottled and the off flavors will mellow.

Good luck!

 

70-72 is on the high side, it's not ideal - but i wouldn't panic, especially with a stout. you should try to keep external (bucket) temps in the mid-60's, since internal (liquid) temps can be 5* higher, or more.

 

alright im back home from my trip and got a hydrometer.. what gravity should it be at when i put it in the secondary? its the northern brewer extract kit and the only gravity they give is the estimated OG..

 

FG on that one should be between 1.011 and 1.014