Don't count your bubbles, it doesn't mean anything.
Fermentation hasn't stopped, BUBBLING has...it's NOT the same thing. An airlock is a vent for EXCESS co2, it's not a fermentation gauge. You had a daysof
active fermentation, meaning lots of EXCESS co2 was being produced. But it's wound down now...that doesn't mean it's stopped...it's just slowing down as less sugar is still there to be eaten by the yeast. And as there is less sugar to be eaten, then the yeast are farting less....therefore there's no excess gass to need to be released. Doesn't mean they're not finished..
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.
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.
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....
