Fast Fermentation.....quickly stalled

[Oceanbrewer]

Last Tuesday I cooked up my second batch of beer. An English brown ale.

I racked to the primary, pitched the dry yeast and when I woke up in the morning, fermentation was off and running, 2-3 bubbles a second. However after two days there was barley any activity in the airlock. If I stared long enough or played with the airlock it would bubble every 40 seconds or so. However the next morning it was silent again. I check the gravity and it was stable for two days so I decided to rack to the secondary. Beer tastes OK but I have some concerns that there was such a vigorous fermentation going and then barley anything. Anyone had any experience like this. Is a two day fermentation common? My first batch of IPA was going strong for two weeks.

Thanks
Dazed and confused

 

[user 574]

I've experienced this as well. What was your temperature of the ferment? The warmer the faster she tends to go but fast isn't really a good thing if the temp was higher than optimum for the yeast. But, it'll still be beer. What was the gravity reading at rack?

 

[cygnus128]

Yes, base your interpretation of the situation on gravity readings wherever possible. A good quick start and fast fermentation are great things (provided the beer was kept in the right temp. range for the yeast in question). Don't sweat it, I'm sure it will be fine.