Wow, if you can break down my postcount THAT accurately, can you figure out what my first post EVER on here was? I thought it was in the Paris Hilton Panty thread...but I'm not sure.
Actually I think it's more like 3,468 myself...
It's just one of those bad brewing practices I wish we could excise from all the brewing books...it may have been a good gauge back 20 or more years ago when (When Charlie P wrote the bible of brewing, and bleach was the main sanitizer) and the main airlock used was the infallible S type, and especially those made of glass that sat heavily on the grommet or carboy bung and made a tight seal..but the cheap ass plastic ones, especially the 3 piecers are NOT reliable for that sort of thing...If the CO2 out gassing is not that strong, it's NOT gonna lift the middle bubbler, but that doesn't NECESSARILY mean the fermentation isn't happening, the yeasties could be just as busy as bees and for whatever reason the CO2 is just sitting on the surface, or sneaking out elsewhere....PLUS new brewers who are SO scared of infecting their beer are more willing to dump yeast into a beer than they are to take a hydro reading to know for sure...