No bubbles in air lock

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Supernaut1985

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I'm brewing a kit of Black Rock: Nut Brown Ale. I'm doing a 2 stage fermentation and am In the second stage. Beer is in the carboy with the air lock on. It has been in the carboy for 4 days and I don't see any bubbles in the air lock. There was at first some bubbles stuck to the sides above the waterline just from condensation I believe. Now there doesn't seem to be anything at all but the water in the airlock Is that normal?

It also lead me to question the hydrometer reading. I think I'm not understanding what is meant by "original gravity" and "final gravity." I think original gravity is the reading when the wort is first prepared? At first preparation I had a reading of about 1.030 which I thought was fairly low. It sat in the fermentation bucket for 6 days. After that The yeast activity seemed to be calmed down and there was a fairly strong smell of alcohol. The reading at that point was 1.036. The directions I have been following suggest about 1.020 before transferring to the carboy. I transferred anyway because of the time it had been in the bucket.

So basically my question is... where am I? Whats going on? What should I expect? What's the meaning of life?...... ok forget the last one.:p
 
It's not unusual to not have much action in the airlock in a secondary. If it was in primary for more than 4-5 days, the bulk of fermentation was already finished when you transferred it. Normally the few bubbles you do see in a secondary are just some of the CO2 that was already in the beer escaping. As for the hydrometer reading, you must have misread your origional gravity. It is not possible for a beer to start at 1.030 and jump to 1.036 during fermentation - fermentation makes the gravity go down, not up. Basically, the gravity tells you how much sugar is in solution. So when you first put your wort into the fermenter, the gravity is higher because there are a lot of sugars in there that have not fermented out yet. After fermentation, when the sugar has been turned to alcohol, the reading is lower - indicating that most of the sugars in solution have been fermented out.

edit: I just thought of something. What was the temperature of your wort when you checked the starting gravity? Hydrometers are calibrated to read accurately at 60 degrees Farenheit. If you take a reading when the wort is warmer than that, you need to add points to the reading it shows. It's something like 2 gravity points added for every 10 degrees over 60 the temperature is. So for example if your reading was 1.030 and the temperature was 80F, the real reading should be 1.034. Hope this helps.
 
I'm brewing a kit of Black Rock: Nut Brown Ale. I'm doing a 2 stage fermentation and am In the second stage. Beer is in the carboy with the air lock on. It has been in the carboy for 4 days and I don't see any bubbles in the air lock. There was at first some bubbles stuck to the sides above the waterline just from condensation I believe. Now there doesn't seem to be anything at all but the water in the airlock Is that normal?

It also lead me to question the hydrometer reading. I think I'm not understanding what is meant by "original gravity" and "final gravity." I think original gravity is the reading when the wort is first prepared? At first preparation I had a reading of about 1.030 which I thought was fairly low. It sat in the fermentation bucket for 6 days. After that The yeast activity seemed to be calmed down and there was a fairly strong smell of alcohol. The reading at that point was 1.036. The directions I have been following suggest about 1.020 before transferring to the carboy. I transferred anyway because of the time it had been in the bucket.

So basically my question is... where am I? Whats going on? What should I expect? What's the meaning of life?...... ok forget the last one.:p

You are correct that your original gravity or O.G is the gravity after the wort is first prepared. I am not familiar with the kit you made but I will assume it is an extract kit and you topped it up with water. It is near impossible to get the water and wort to mix properly and people always wonder why their OG is so low. it is because you are sampling mostly top up water. As for your FG that is the finished gravity of the beer. It is impossible for this beer to be at 1.036 if it started at 1.030. The gravity goes DOWN as it ferments.

That said airlock activity is not a definitive sign of fermentation. Different reasons can make an airlock not bubble even though there is fermentation. What you SHOULD have done is leave the beer alone in primary. I am only a couple of years into the hobby but one of the main things I see newer guys do is try to brew on a time line. The yeast are finished when they are finished. For this beer I would wait a couple of days and take another gravity reading. If it is lower leave it alone. If it is the same you have stalled the fermentation by moving it around ( no idea why that happens but some say it does) In that case swirl the carboy around a little bit to stir up the yeast. DON'T SLOSH IT just swirl it. Also warm it up a little bit.

Next time just leave the beer in primary until you reach final gravity. then either let it set to clear out and then bottle it or rack to a secondary to clear out and bottle it.
 
Oh yes temperature, I forgot about that. First measure was about 81F and second at about 70ish. Hmm, maybe I just misread it.
 
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