My Scottish Ale tricked me!

[HomerJR]

So I brewed a Scottish Style Ale a few days ago. OG of 1.050, used Wyeast 1728, with a target FG of 1.015 or so. Two full days go by and I finally see a few bubbles. A couple more days go by and I am not seeing what I would call signs of active fermentation.

So questions start popping up in my mind: Should I have made a big starter? Did I not aerate enough? Is it too chilly in my pantry?

So just to see where I'm at I take a gravity sample. It's at 1.018, just a couple points from my target. I'm sure in the next 2 weeks it'll drop another couple points, so I should be right on target. And as an added bonus, it tastes wonderful.

I don't know when it fermented. While I slept perhaps. Anyway, it's all good!

 

[Flywheel]

In a bucket? buckets are notorious for letting gas escape from other areas, just like me.

 

[HomerJR]

Yeah, it's in a bucket. It's always a possibility that it's not sealed perfectly. I guess this is just another example of how the beer is smarter than I am. Can't wait to taste it. It's gonna be yummy.

 

[StoutattheDevil]

As long as it tastes ok your good to go. The only problem if it wasn't seeled well could be possible contamination but you've ruled that out. Plastic breathes and flexes where your glass Carboy does not. So that leaves only one place for expanding gasses to go. Up and out.

 

[rambler]

If you havent heard it yet on this site I will have to be the one to tell you. A bubbling airlock is NOT a fermentation guage. Thats what your hydrometer is for. And now you know empirically

 

[Revvy]

It didn't trick you it just that your "obvious signs of fermentation" was faulty. The only "obvious sign" is a decrease in gravity on a hydromter. Anything else is faulty...airlock bubbling or lack there of, even krausens are not a good indicator truly of what the beer is doing.

 

[rambler]

See I told you so.