My blowoff tube is not bubbling after 3 days but my fermentation bucket feels warm. What to do

[mad32brewing]

So I brewed up a honey wheat ale this past Sunday and pitched 1 pack of US-05. My OG was a bit high at 1.062. It's now Wednesday and there is no activity in my blow-off tube. Because I am using a bucket I can't see what is going on inside or if a krausen has formed. However, I felt the side of the bucket and it feels warm as if there is fermentation happening and the temp strip on my bucket says 71 degrees Fahrenheit, out side temp in my apartment right now is 63 degrees Fahrenheit (i am trying to cool it down right now though with frozen water bottles in my fermentation bag). What my question is, is basically what should I do? Should I open the lid to see if anything is going on inside the bucket(i am scared to do this though because of oxidation)? Should I wait one more day and see if anything starts up? Or should I just run by my homebrew shop and buy another packet of yeast and re-pitch?

 

[balrog]

do you smell anything near the bucket?

If so, fermentation gods have visited but the airlock, bucket seal, blowoff tube seal are allowing the CO2 to escape without pushing through your carefully constructed CO2 pathway to bubbledom.

 

[mad32brewing]

Ya, I am definitely smelling something, but I dont know if it's fermentation or the bag. For the last brew I made using this fermentation bag, I spilled some of the beer into the bag when transferring it to my bottling bucket. So, don't know if i am smelling fermentation or just residual smell from my last beer.

 

[balrog]

spilled stale beer vs ongoing yeasty fermentation are two pretty different scents, but you do have to learn what those are and not have some interwebz person just say they're different. If the bucket is typical white translucent, shine a wicked bright flashlight toward you, through the bucket from the other side, at the top level of the beer, and you might be able to tell if you see a krausen ring

 

[mad32brewing]

spilled stale beer vs ongoing yeasty fermentation are two pretty different scents, but you do have to learn what those are and not have some interwebz person just say they're different. If the bucket is typical white translucent, shine a wicked bright flashlight toward you, through the bucket from the other side, at the top level of the beer, and you might be able to tell if you see a krausen ring

Ok, that sounds like a good idea. Would like the light from my iPhone work or should I use a flashlight?

 

[Yooper]

It sounds like fermentation is going strong- the temperature rise is a good sign- but if you really want to know, open the bucket and take a look. Then close it back up and wait for it to finish. If you see krausen, or a krausen ring, it's fermenting.

 

[balrog]

i use on o' them LED tech lights.
eg

 

[mad32brewing]

It sounds like fermentation is going strong- the temperature rise is a good sign- but if you really want to know, open the bucket and take a look. Then close it back up and wait for it to finish. If you see krausen, or a krausen ring, it's fermenting.

So opening it for sec not cause any additional unwanted oxidation. Sorry for all the questions, still pretty new to all of this.

 

[Yooper]

So opening it for sec not cause any additional unwanted oxidation. Sorry for all the questions, still pretty new to all of this.

No, not in a beer that is so young.

 

[mad32brewing]

No, not in a beer that is so young.

Ok perfect, I'll take a look at it and let you know what I see.

 

[mad32brewing]

No, not in a beer that is so young.

I just looked inside and there is definitely a nice layer of foam/ krausen on top. So does that me I just have a leaky lid?

 

[davidabcd]

I'm terrified to open my fermenter. Flashlight, mentioned above, will tell you what you need to know: either there's a goop shadow about an inch or two about the beer line after a few days, still a solid krausen or nothing. If nothing, I would start investigating. Your ferment was obviously going fine as your ambient temp was in the 60s and your fermenter was reading 71°F.

 

[Mtrhdltd]

Dont do anything, this is normal. 3 days active fermentation at that temp is typical. Relax, dont worry, have a homebrew.

 

[Skeptonomicon]

Buckets are harder to seal than car boys, so most likely a bad seal. This is why many peeps put up with carboys which are 10x harder to clean. I’ve even had the orange clown nose carboy tops leak enough to stop the bubbles, so now I use a hose clamp on the clown nose.

 

[Nokie]

So I brewed up a honey wheat ale this past Sunday and pitched 1 pack of US-05. My OG was a bit high at 1.062. It's now Wednesday and there is no activity in my blow-off tube. Because I am using a bucket I can't see what is going on inside or if a krausen has formed. However, I felt the side of the bucket and it feels warm as if there is fermentation happening and the temp strip on my bucket says 71 degrees Fahrenheit, out side temp in my apartment right now is 63 degrees Fahrenheit (i am trying to cool it down right now though with frozen water bottles in my fermentation bag). What my question is, is basically what should I do? Should I open the lid to see if anything is going on inside the bucket(i am scared to do this though because of oxidation)? Should I wait one more day and see if anything starts up? Or should I just run by my homebrew shop and buy another packet of yeast and re-pitch?

It also depends on how you have your blow off tube set up. When I run one I just run it into a mason jar with some starsan.
most of the time I don’t catch it bubbling but it’ll make the starsan foam up.

 

[Yorkshire lad]

I would seal the rim with duct tape, wait two weeks since pitching the yeast, then take an SG reading.
(You did check the OG, yes?), decide what to do when you get the results.

 

[Consigliere]

I had a really weak start to fermentation with a US05 pack this weekend as well. Like you a small Krausen formed after 3 days but it was not like other ferments with US05. I could not find any leaks either but there may have been. I pitched about 250ml of WLP001 slurry i had from a recent brew into the fermenter and airlock took off after an hour. Something to try if you believe you are struggling with fermentation.

 

[szap]

You probably have checked this, but if there is even a small part of the lid that is not pushed down all the way tight, my experience is you will not see any air lock activity. Go around the entire perimeter of the lid pushing down hard. Sometimes I have to push down like I would an overstuffed suitcase to get it to snap into place.

 

[BigGulps]

My first time brewing I had a similar problem, except since I was using a clear Fermonster I could definitely see the yeast going crazy -- but no bubbles coming from the blowoff tube. I pushed down on the silicone bung and bubbling immediately began in the mason jar of StarSan -- clearly telling me my stopper was not sealing perfectly. Now I make sure the stopper and Fermonster lid are nice and dry after sanitizing so it seals properly.