Is there a Yeast Whisperer?

[dogbrew]

Yesterday I made a simple extract and steeped grains special bitter and pitched London ESB smack-pack. A couple of hours later it was happily bubbling away in the primary, continued bubbling all night, and was still bubbling very actively this morning. The stick-on thermometer says 72 degrees. At lunch time I noticed an eerie silence, the bubbling had stopped completely over the course of no more than 3 hours, possibly less. There was no evidence of krausen in the blowoff tube (I had wondered if the tube was blocked). The primary is a plastic fermentation bucket, 6 gallon with 5 gallons of beer in it, so I can't see what it's doing inside but the tube was completely clean and I could look down through the tubing wall into the bucket without seeing any sort of plug. After waiting about a minute and not seeing a single bubble, I pressed very lightly on the lid and bubbles did come out, so the tube must not be blocked. I waited. And waited. After several minutes, still no new bubbles.

Being new to this and constantly over-reacting, I decided to swish the bucket around a little without opening it. I figured after 10 hours of active bubbling there would be little to no oxygen left in the headspace (perhaps I am wrong) so I figured oxygenating the beer would not be a big risk. So I picked the bucket up and gave it a vigorous swirl back and forth. In the 5 seconds that it took to put the end of the blowoff tube back into the sanitizing water it was already bubbling vigorous again. So I went from no bubbles at all before swirling to vigorous bubbles IMMEDIATELY after swirling, all in the space of about 5 to 10 seconds. I wondered if it would be a temporary resurgence, but it's been about 15 minutes now and the bubbles are still vigorous, a new pack of bubbles every half-second, so I guess I feel like "maybe" I fixed something by stirring up the yeast..? But I have no idea. It seems like an awfully fast recovering... just a few seconds to go from nothing to vigorous?

Anyone have an educated guess as to what was happening, and if I did the right thing or not (and why)?

 

[Revvy]

What is happening is that you're messing with your beer by trying to make your airlock bubble... It doesn't matter what your airlock does or doesn't do...

Read this.

You don't need a yeast whisperer, you need to;

Everything is fine.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

The bubbles stopped because the yeast was done dividing.
They started again because you shook CO2 out of solution.
You're probably okay because the air above the beer was mostly CO2, but you likely have oxygenated the beer a bit.

Just let it do its thing. You'll know it is done by taking gravity measurements.

 

[tre9er]

Co2 is coming out of solution due to you swirling things. Don't watch the bubbles. They are a Co2 indicator, not a fermentation gauge. Wait a good week or two (better) then take some gravity readings days apart. If they're the same, it's "done" but more time on the yeast can help clean up any off-flavors.

 

[dogbrew]

ok, thanks. I think I am gun-shy because after making half a dozen or so batches of beer with nary a problem, my last batch plugged the airlock and blew the lid off the primary. When this one stopped bubbling very suddenly (instead of gradually slowing down like every other batch I've done) I got worried it was going to blow up while I was away, or that something was wrong with the yeast. I'll definitely leave it alone now. Thanks for your replies.

 

[ChillWill]

Don't worry about adding oxygen, IF you did add some (which is unlikely) the yeast will use it, or subsequent co2 leaving the beer will strip it out (assuming there's some sugar left).

In future, keep your hands to yourself!

 

[helibrewer]

In the future, if you suspect a blocked airlock, pull it off and check it. This fear of oxygenation is unwarranted. If you bubble an airstone in there for an hour you'll be lucky to attain 8ppm of dissolved oxygen. Looking through the airlock hole or even opening the fermentor is pretty harmless. Rousing the yeast is of little concern also...probably not necessary, but not harmful with proper santitation. There are occasions when rousing yeast is beneficial, I even know one guy who works with Lallemand on their yeast that does it daily, just like with wine. You just have to be smart about it.

Your beer will be fine.

PS - There IS a yeast whisper, Shea Comfort; www.yeastwhisperer.com

 

[beergolf]

watch this. Bubbles mean nothing.