Only 2 reasons to ever look at your airlock

[Djuhnk]

Everyone just use your common sense /thread


Yes the yeast is still taking care of business in the late stages so you might as well just play it safe and let if ferment for longer than you think

 

[kepo]

I didn't feel like the OP was being pompous or a know it all. Sure the info isn't anything new and has been posted here many times. It's still not a big deal dude there's no need for the insults. Take that talk to the debate section.

I'll also point out the person that posted right before you found this thread reassuring. That alone makes the thread worth it.

As a noob I have done extensive amounts of searching and reading on this forum. There are going to be topics that have been covered time and time again but as a noob I may not have thought of yet. So topics like this are helpful and spark thoughts that lead to more searching in the hopes of picking up golden nuggets of information.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

As a noob I have done extensive amounts of searching and reading on this forum. There are going to be topics that have been covered time and time again but as a noob I may not have thought of yet. So topics like this are helpful and spark thoughts that lead to more searching in the hopes of picking up golden nuggets of information.

That's the exact reason I gave my opinion. There's going to be a lot of stuff that gets repeated but HBT gets new members every day and has brewers at different stages in the hobby looking for all sorts of different information. Not everyone is used to being a part of a forum so their really trying when they come here for help. As brewers we have to help each other out, especially people just starting, even if that means answering the same question or providing the same info time and time again.

 

[Varmintman]

Not to mention that if we could not answer questions already answered somewhere in the 10 gazillion replies the forum would die.

I think it is good to answer some questions even though beat to death. It may be old hat to us but to a lot of people it is all new and confusing.

Not to mention just today there were 2 noob questions that I went and researched and learned something new myself.

 

[BobbiLynn]

I should rephrase and sorry for any misunderstanding... until you get used to your equipment, you will not know if airlock activity is an indicator of completion of fermentation. So no need to watch it as an indication of when to transfer or bottle.

 

[STB]

I like looking at my airlocks for the soothing, hypnotic effect of the bubbles. It's very calming. Combine that with the aromatherapeutic aspect of fermentation (airlock sniffing) and it's like a home spa treatment for brewers.

GD I love that smell! It's magical and I'm thinking of creating a fragrance for the on line vendors to sell. "O De Brew" I'm calling it.

 

[Pappers_]

Add me to the list of brewers who do look to airlock (or blowoff tube) activity as a sign of active fermentation.

 

[Varmintman]

I park my fermenter in a closet. No not my wifes closet no never again And forget get about it for a couple of weeks until I rack it. I do not worry if it finishes fast or anything. And that is why a pipeline is a wonderful thing.

 

[BobbiLynn]

Add me to the list of brewers who do look to airlock (or blowoff tube) activity as a sign of active fermentation.

I said that in the beginning! The whole point got lost somewhere, nevermind.

Airlocks will show you visibly when your beer is in it's most active stages.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Add me to the list of brewers who do look to airlock (or blowoff tube) activity as a sign of active fermentation.

I think blow off tubes can safely be grouped in with "air lock activity."

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Add me to the list of brewers who do look to airlock (or blowoff tube) activity as a sign of active fermentation.

Add me, too.

No airlock activity in the hours/days after pitching is indicative of one of several things:
Ineffective fermenter seal (likely no big deal - but a cause nonetheless)
Long lag time
No active yeast

Couple that information with a visual inspection and/or hydrometer reading, and the lack of activity tells you something - either the fermenter is poorly sealed, or the yeast hasn't started working very hard yet (maybe never will). Is it cause for worry? Probably not. Does it provide information? YES! If nothing else, it is an indicator that you might take a hydrometer reading much sooner than you would otherwise.

On the other hand, a very active airlock is indicative of healthy fermentation. It's reassuring. It also provides information. It's not complete information, but it is indeed information.

A slowly bubbling airlock is less useful but not useless. As mentioned previously, atmospheric changes can cause that just as easily as fermentation. However, if the airlock was bubbling rapidly for a period of time, and activity slows/stops, it indicates that fermentation may be coming to a halt. For beers that I want to keg quickly, I use that as an indicator to take a reading. A hydrometer is your friend.

I'm not advocating using airlock activity as the sole means by which you measure the health of your yeast. However, there is information to be gleaned by watching it.

 

[RCCOLA]

I use slowing airlock activity and dropping ferm temp to tell me when to start ramping the temp up on my lagers. I use airlock activity to my advantage based on experience with what it indicates.

It's a useful tool in my brewing toolbox. Learn what it means in regard to your system and it can be useful to you too.

 

[BobbiLynn]

Yes, it can tell you a lot of things, I agree. So watch away if you'd like. But look at your first batch and see no bubbles and think, oh, fermentation is done! Just don't do that and we can all get along just fine. :cross:

 

[Clonefan94]

I haven't brewed a lot of batches to this point. Still under 20, and probably opening myself up to huge ridicule, but if you see no airlock activity, do people really just go ahead and let it ride for 2 or 3 weeks? Maybe it's just been dumb luck, but all of my brews have bubbled through the airlock. I ferment in buckets, so I can't tell by quick glance weather or not anything else is going on, but if by day 4, I haven't seen any airlock activity, I would at least give the beer itself a look to make sure something was going on.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the idea behind "Airlock is not an indicator" but, I still feel it a bit of a disservice to tell people never to worry about airlock activity. If you don't see anything, ever, I would say it's time to check something, maybe your lid isn't shut, bad yeast, etc. But I would rather just check on Day 4 and either be at east or fix the problem, than wait two weeks to find out that something unwanted was growing in my beer because my yeast never took off.

Yes, Hydrometer reading should always be the end all be all of weather a beer is done, but to say no activity ever, is always OK, seems wrong to this novice. I think a better way to say it would be, don't let bubbles be an indicator that fermentation has stopped. Like I said, this is only because I have yet to have a situation wher I didn't get bubbles in teh airlock. And with the amount of CO2 being produced, it would seem odd to me that you would never see a bubble, unless something was amiss.

 

[Varmintman]

No not any ridicule from me. When I first started I would watch the fermenter like a worried mom watches her kids. Now I just toss it into a cool dark place and leave it alone until racking or bottling time. Well that is not 100% true. Everytime I see a infection thread that is a infection I will go and glance at it

 

[BobbiLynn]

I guess I was just assuming that everyone saw it/heard it bubbling in the first week, at varied amounts, reaching it's most active stage at various points in the game. So sorry again about any confusion. My airlocks always stop visibly bubbling(both glass and plastic), long before the beer has finished fermenting, that's all I was trying to say. Maybe if I watched them long enough while still fermenting, I would see a bubble.

Everyone has different methods. I know that. Mine is to brew it up, pitch the yeast, then set and forget. Since they are in the same room as my computer though, I'll always hear the newest one bubbling away at some point soon after I've gotten it started. If I don't hear it, check the seal, make sure something hasn't blown off. But that's just the first week. If I heard nothing and seal was good, yes, of course, something is wrong, yeast was bad, something happened.

3) To make sure, after a few days, it is indeed bubbling.

And that's just if you use my set and forget method. Personally, I would use a beer thief after 2 weeks to check fermentation by taste over what the airlock is doing, but that's just me.

Until I bring up a subject, I don't realize how much other methods differ from mine. If nothing else, I learned something. And I hope others do not think this was a waste of a topic, because read through and surely, you will learn something. Either from my OP, or something else you read here(probably the most likely scenario).