I just brewed my first beer on Saturday. According to the directions the beer should have begun active fermentation within the next 2 -3 days. I was extremely surprised when i heard the sound of a gunshot in my closet the next morning only to find that my air lock had been clogged and the carboy blew out all over the room. I quickly set up a sanitized blow off hose and cleaned up the mess. The fermentation still seemed pretty active during the rest of the day; however, I woke up this morning and there was very little kreusen left and there didn't seem to be much activity. Would this be a bad thing or did the yeast just take a break from destroying my closet for a while? Is there any signs to look out for that may tell me that something has gone wrong in the fermentation process? Thanks for the help.
Active Fermentation stopped suddenly. Bad?
- Thread starter ozzy4355
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Nothing is wrong. Initial fermentation is done. It'll now slowly,uneventfully ferment down to FG. No worries m8.
idahobrew
Well-Known Member
Just leave it alone, hopefully you sanitized your airlock before putting back in the fermenter. Next time use a blowoff tube, I learned that lesson on my first batch also. 2-3 days of active fermentation is normal but the beer is slowly fermenting after that. Let it sit for 17 days or so and then take gravity readings 3 days in a row if the reading is the same the fermentation is done. Most people here including myself let the beer sit in the primary 3-4 weeks before bottling unless you are dry hopping.
Thanks for the help. I was sure to keep everything sanitized throughout this whole process. My wife was less than excited about the mess my new hobby caused. If I'm doing two stage fermenting when should I move it into secondary?
You're making the mistake of equating airlock bubbling with "active fermentation" that's really not what they mean.
Fermentation is not always dynamic...just because you don't SEE anything happening doesn't mean that the yeast aren't happily chewing away at whatever fermentables are in there....the only way to know comes from gravity readings, and nothing else.
Your airlock is NOT a fermentation gauge, despite what instructions or other people may have said. It is a VENT, and VALVE to release EXCESS co2 as needed. The amount of bubbles have no correlation to some concrete rate of fermentation. Initially there may be lots of bubbles, because lots of co2 is being generated in the first few days of fermentation. But eventually there's going to be less EXCESS co2 being produced, that doesn't mean fermentation is done, it just means that since most of the sugars have been consumed, the yeast are farting co2 less. SO the rate may change, or it may stop completely because there's no EXCESS being produced.
That's why you need to seperate the idea of bubbling = fermentation from your mindset.
Don't stress about what an airlock does or doesn't do. The rate or lack of or whether or not it bubbles at all, or if it starts and stops has more relation to the environment the fermenter is in, rather than fermentation itself. All it is is a vent, a valve to let our excess gas, especially co2, nothing else. It's not a fermentation gauge whatsoever.
It could just as easily be bubbling or stop bubbling for that matter, due to changes in barometric pressure, temperature, or whether or not the cat or vacuum cleaner bumped into it, as it could be to because it's still fermenting.
Activity, action, bubbles, even krausen can be affected by the envoironment just as much as it being caused by the yeast...so going by that is NOT reliable.
Bubblling or lack of means nothing, like others have said the biggest part of fermentation has wound down, but that doesn't mean there's still not a lot of work for the yeast to still do.
If you want to know what's going on with your beer, then take a gravity reading. The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....
Fermentation is not always dynamic...just because you don't SEE anything happening doesn't mean that the yeast aren't happily chewing away at whatever fermentables are in there....the only way to know comes from gravity readings, and nothing else.
Your airlock is NOT a fermentation gauge, despite what instructions or other people may have said. It is a VENT, and VALVE to release EXCESS co2 as needed. The amount of bubbles have no correlation to some concrete rate of fermentation. Initially there may be lots of bubbles, because lots of co2 is being generated in the first few days of fermentation. But eventually there's going to be less EXCESS co2 being produced, that doesn't mean fermentation is done, it just means that since most of the sugars have been consumed, the yeast are farting co2 less. SO the rate may change, or it may stop completely because there's no EXCESS being produced.
That's why you need to seperate the idea of bubbling = fermentation from your mindset.
Don't stress about what an airlock does or doesn't do. The rate or lack of or whether or not it bubbles at all, or if it starts and stops has more relation to the environment the fermenter is in, rather than fermentation itself. All it is is a vent, a valve to let our excess gas, especially co2, nothing else. It's not a fermentation gauge whatsoever.
It could just as easily be bubbling or stop bubbling for that matter, due to changes in barometric pressure, temperature, or whether or not the cat or vacuum cleaner bumped into it, as it could be to because it's still fermenting.
Activity, action, bubbles, even krausen can be affected by the envoironment just as much as it being caused by the yeast...so going by that is NOT reliable.
Bubblling or lack of means nothing, like others have said the biggest part of fermentation has wound down, but that doesn't mean there's still not a lot of work for the yeast to still do.
If you want to know what's going on with your beer, then take a gravity reading. The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....
The time to secondary is usually when your gravity stops dropping. It's can't be measured in "how many days" or anything like that. The best way to know would be to take gravity readings every day. When it's stable for a couple of days, then you can rack.
Of course, there's also a ton of debate on whether you actually need to secondary or not. Personally, I never secondary unless I'm racking onto something like fruit or oak, or dry hopping. Other than that, I only use a primary and don't risk an infection for no good reason.
Of course, there's also a ton of debate on whether you actually need to secondary or not. Personally, I never secondary unless I'm racking onto something like fruit or oak, or dry hopping. Other than that, I only use a primary and don't risk an infection for no good reason.
No need to take gravity readings every day. It's a waste of beer. I wait 2 weeks before checking it again just to see where I'm at. It's usually close to FG,maybe another week after to finish. Another 3-7 days after FG is reached to settle out clear or slightly misty.
I use a refractomer, so a couple of drops doesn't hurt. However, I'm like you, I check it after two weeks and it's usually there.
A wine thief can also be used to take a hydrometer reading and return it back to the fermenter. Assuming you're very careful about sanitizing everything well of course.
A wine thief can also be used to take a hydrometer reading and return it back to the fermenter. Assuming you're very careful about sanitizing everything well of course.
It'd be hard to say an exact figure, but essentially every time you touch your beer or expose it to the air, there's a chance that something can get into it. When you're racking, you obviously have a greater risk because you now have more equipment (racking cane, tubing, and another vessel) touching your beer that opens it up more to something not being sanitized well enough.
homebrewdad
Well-Known Member
Very little, if you follow proper sanitation proceedures. But the risk is >0 (this coming from a guy who uses secondaries).
See comment above... but since you're introducing liquid back to your beer, the chance is also >0. Most of the community looks at this as an avoidable risk... drink or dump the sample. But it's your brew, if you want to put it back, who's going to stop you?
