No bubbles in airlock = No problem...but why?

[danimal615]

This is my third batch and my airlock didn't show any signs of fermentation. After a week the krausen was great along with the smell and the gravity was right where i wanted it. My question is why didnt it bubble this time though? The stuff is all pretty new (only 3 brews) but do you think the airlock is bad, the bucket seals are bad, or just a random non bubbling brew?

 

[unionrdr]

I've had brews that didn't bubble once,but turned out just fine. sometimes they just don't ferment very aggresively. Othertimes,it's the colder temps keeping the yeast at the low end of their happy zone. Every fermentation being a bit different,it happens sometimes. No worries.

 

[poptarts]

yeast are making c02, its just leaving threw other means other than the air lock. My vote would be on bad bucket seal. i had this happen several times.

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

Make sure you have enough water to fill up the airlock where it doesn't have a constant hole for co2 to escape. Check out craigtubes video on airlocks and that way you'll be able to find out of it's your seal. But like unionrdr said, your brews are fine. Bubbles don't mean fermentation. If you just want to have that visual and the audio of the airlock, check out that airlock video.

[ame]http://youtu.be/4WMc0xDbEbo[/ame]

 

[nextgenxx]

Bubbles don't mean anything. Since it sounds like you are using a plastic bucket most likely it had a bad seal, so leaks were elsewhere.

If you had krausen buildup, you beer did ferment. What you really need to do is just check the FG and see what it reads. Then you will know if the beer is done and ready to bottle/keg.

 

[unionrdr]

...or the lack thereof. The BB Ale Pails don't have seals in the lids,& the lid always leaked uder the higher co2 pressures of initial fermentation. but my airlock always worked to one degree or other most of the time.