Getting more fermentation

[loz114]

I've been brewing beer for about half a year now, nothing to serious, just the ready made packs you just knock down with hot water and ferment. What I've noticed during the fermentation phase, is once the airlock stops bubbling, if you gently rock it (not hard but just enough to disturb the yeast) then the airlock will once again bubble for a few hours, if not longer. But I have no idea if this process is good or bad for the batch! What's people thoughts or knowledge on this?

 

[RM-MN]

When your brew is fermenting there is a lot of CO2 produced and some of this is dissolved in the wort. When you rock the fermenter some of this will come out of solution, same as when you shake a can of pop. I wouldn't disturb the fermenter as the yeast are quite good at what they do and will do it without your intervention and then will settle to the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[MZRIS]

you can actually re-activate your yeast that have fallen out of suspension by doing that. I do this often with my brews since i keg my beers and don't require natural carbonation to take place in the bottles. I have bottled a batch or two after doing this during primary and secondary fermentation and they did not carbonate well. The yeast were just too tired to do anything.

I am still letting those bottles sit because they are slowly getting some carbonation, but 4 months in and they are still only very lightly carbonated. lesson learned there

 

[loz114]

Cheers for the advice, in this case I will leave well alone because I bottle my beer.