Hi all...I'm a homebrew virgin (well...I'm in the process of changing that, but that is pretext for my ignorance) and I wanted to find out what is going on with my airlock & brew. I started the process with a wheat beer kit on Thursday, June 5th. Thursday night I noticed the airlock had a steady stream of bubbles. By Friday afternoon I noticed only one bubble every 5-10 seconds. I went out of town Friday afternoon and upon returning to the house Sunday evening and discovered that the airlock was not producing any bubbles. The temp has been relatively constant at 70 degrees. The kit recommends allowing at least 5-6 days for fermentation...but I had the impression the airlock would be showing bubbles the whole time. Any suggestions? It seems very early for fermentation to be complete.

BeerBart wrote:
Hi all...I'm a homebrew virgin (well...I'm in the process of changing that, but that is pretext for my ignorance) and I wanted to find out what is going on with my airlock & brew. I started the process with a wheat beer kit on Thursday, June 5th. Thursday night I noticed the airlock had a steady stream of bubbles. By Friday afternoon I noticed only one bubble every 5-10 seconds. I went out of town Friday afternoon and upon returning to the house Sunday evening and discovered that the airlock was not producing any bubbles. The temp has been relatively constant at 70 degrees. The kit recommends allowing at least 5-6 days for fermentation...but I had the impression the airlock would be showing bubbles the whole time. Any suggestions? It seems very early for fermentation to be complete.

Sounds like everything went perfectly. The majority of fermentation will be done in 2 days or so. Primary fermentation continues for around 5-6 days, but the bulk of it happens very quickly. During the last few days, bubbles happen very rarely, as the yeast is just consuming the last bits of sugar, as opposed to during the very vigorous early stages when there's a ton of sugar everywhere.

That said, bubbles in the airlock are not a gauge of fermentation. Use a hydrometer. The bubbles can misguide you, but the hydrometer never will.

Thanks Jeff...after further research on the topic it seemed that a lot of people said similar things about airlocks being misleading. Although I doubt my brew is "perfect," it's good to hear that I may still be on the right track.

I just brewed a rye pale ale and the "strong" fermentation appeared to died off after just a couple days like jeff said. but it's just not necessarily creating pressure to cause bubbles. the rye pale came out awesome btw. I'll post up the recipe tomorrow.

Definitely don't use the airlock as your judge for fermentation. I know with my last batch I didn't get a single bubble, so it seems I developed a leak somewhere. IMO.. let it sit for 7 days, then maybe take your first sample to check with your hydrometer.

Looking forward to seeing that Rye Pale Ale recipe Devon. After trying some Hop Rod Rye, i noticed the Rye gives an interesting flavor and I'm tossing around the idea of brewing one as well.

riored4v wrote:
Definitely don't use the hydrometer as your judge for fermentation. I know with my last batch I didn't get a single bubble, so it seems I developed a leak somewhere. IMO.. let it sit for 7 days, then maybe take your first sample to check with your hydrometer.

Looking forward to seeing that Rye Pale Ale recipe Devon. After trying some Hop Rod Rye, i noticed the Rye gives an interesting flavor and I'm tossing around the idea of brewing one as well.

I'm guessing that first sentence should have been "Definitely DO use the hydrometer as your judge for fermentation."

Also, yeah, rye beers are great! I got a recipe for an IPA I'm going to put up soon as well. It came out delicious!

Jeff wrote:

I'm guessing that first sentence should have been "Definitely DO use the hydrometer as your judge for fermentation."

Also, yeah, rye beers are great! I got a recipe for an IPA I'm going to put up soon as well. It came out delicious!

Sorry, I went and corrected it. I meant to say "definitely don't use the airlock as your judge" just after basing airlock activity on my last batch. Since it seemed to develop a leak, I didn't get a single bubble. Of course if there are no leaks, it's a decent indicator of activity, but as you mentioned, DEFINTELY DO use your hydrometer as your judge for fermentation

I am brewing my first batch of IPA and the fermentation is so powerful it blew all of the water out of the bubbler - and then filled it with foam and some particulates from the wort (hop bits I think). Is it safe to put more water back in the bubbler? Also, it seems like there is enough pressure to where a few drops of beer are seeping out from under the lid. I have a plastic fermenter and the lid was put on very tightly. What are the odds the beer is oxidized? I think the bubbler did not have water in it for at least an hour. Any help appreciated!

hooplehead wrote:
I am brewing my first batch of IPA and the fermentation is so powerful it blew all of the water out of the bubbler - and then filled it with foam and some particulates from the wort (hop bits I think). Is it safe to put more water back in the bubbler? Also, it seems like there is enough pressure to where a few drops of beer are seeping out from under the lid. I have a plastic fermenter and the lid was put on very tightly. What are the odds the beer is oxidized? I think the bubbler did not have water in it for at least an hour. Any help appreciated!

I'll give you the advice I give everyone else on this, first off the good news, chances are your beer is prob totally fine. Yes you can just clean out the airlock and put it back, however airlocks clog easier so you'd honestly be better served by replacing it with a blow off tube. just rin a tube right from your fermenter into a bucket with some water and sanitzer mixed into it. performs the same function as the airlock but is much less likely to get clogged. Hop that helps

Also, to follow up on Devon's comment, your beer is not oxidized. Fermenting beer has positive pressure and there's CO2 coming off of it... Oxygen won't touch it. I know people who do open fermentation and their beer doesn't get oxidized. If you just have a few drops leaking around the edges, you're fine... just clean them up with a clean towel so they don't get infected sitting out in the open. No worries, though.