Airlock stopped bubbling!

[Alexpanda]

Hey guys. So I started home brewing for the first time on Saturday. I have put down a Morgans Dark Ale and a Morgans Cerveza. The dark ale started too bubble about 18 hours after being down. Which has now stopped bubbling day 3. The Cerveza hasn't started bubbling yet. Temperature has been at roughly 23 until this morning when it was down at 21 being a cooler night. Which is when I noticed it had stopped bubbling.

 

[Siborg]

Welcome to the wonderful world of homebrewing. No bubbling in the airlock can mean a couple of things:
1. Your fermenter isn't air tight and CO2 has found an easier way out than through the airlock (probable)
2. Your yeast isn't fermenting at all (improbable)
3. Your yeast has finished fermenting (probable after a few days, and at higher than 20 degrees temperatures).

Don't stress about the airlock. Take a gravity reading before you add yeast and every day after (if you like). A hyrdometer from your local homebrew shop (LHBS) will help you with this.

 

[sp0rk]

Ignore the airlock, take gravity readings

 

[Alexpanda]

Thanks for the replies guys. When testing the gravity reading, what am I actually looking for. What reading is good or bad. Or is that all explained in the instructions etc.

 

[Bribie G]

When you get a few brews under your belt and are getting consistent results, consider ditching the lid and airlock and use Gladwrap, using the rubber O ring out of the lid to hold it in place.

This gives you a window onto the brew - after the "normal" number of days when the beer starts clearing from the top, I know it's just about finished - do a gravity reading then give it a few more days to settle then bottle / keg.



Edit: re gravities, it depends on the style of beer but for most kit beers you are looking for the final gravity of the beer to be about 1010 or less. Should be in the Kit instructions.
For example if the gravity were to read 1018 then it's still not ready and you could get gushers or bombs if you bottled at that stage.

 

[Alexpanda]

Okay I will bypass the brew shop today and grab one, thanks for the replies

 

[Alexpanda]

Also should I be dropping my fermentation degrees down too 20 when I drop my next two brews?

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Or you could ditch the glad rap and leave the lid on and just do gravity reading like you should.
Nev

 

[Alexpanda]

I'll be getting a meter today. So I'll give it a test and put results here

 

[Bribie G]

When the fermentor is empty, run your finger round the rim and you will probably find two little ridges made by both halves of the blow-mould. Slice these off with a box cutter / Stanley Knife to make it seal better. Then holding the cutter at 45 degrees just run it lightly around the inside of the rim to pare off any messy bits of plastic left when they moulded, and you'll almost certainly get a perfect seal for your next brew.

Another thing is not to overtighten as that can distort the O ring and leave a space for gas to escape rather than go through the airlock.

 

[Alexpanda]

As much as I would like a perfect seal I'm not going too be attempting too make it better myself with a Stanley blade. I spend good money too buy good products not for me too possible destroy it with a Stanley knife. Thanks for the advice though, but I won't be attempting that sorry.

 

[Bribie G]

Regularly did that with all my fermentors in my airlock days and when I ran a LHBS we did that as a courtesy for all our customers.

 

[Alexpanda]

I'll take a look at mine and see how bad it is. Thanks for the info. Doing abit of reading on the site now, think I'm getting too far ahead of myself for only being at my first brew.

 

[H0U5ECAT]

Instead of ditching the whole batch, wait about 7 days from the day you pitched your yeast.
Everything should be fine.
Did you get the foam forming on the top?
If so, you just don't have an air tight seal. Don't worry.

and check your gravity readings too. if it's at about 1010 as Bribe said, then it should be fine to bottle.

CO2 is heavier than O2 and will push it out.

 

[Alexpanda]

Okay thanks. My brew had foam too start with from adding water, the dark ale was bubbling but had now stopped. And the cerveza hasn't bubbled yet, but I'll be doing a gravity check this afternoon. Thanks

 

[Alexpanda]

If the gravity reading is 1010 and it's fine too bottle. It's only been down three days, isn't that too quick? Also how low can the gravity reading go before the brew is no good? Thanks

 

[mkstalen]

That is very quick. But if it's temperature is mid-high 20's then then that's quite feasible. Most ale yeasts work best in the high teens to low 20's. High temps can produce some odd flavours.

Sent from my Samsung S3 using Tapatalk.

 

[mkstalen]

The gravity won't keep dropping. Gravity of water is about 1.000, you'll never get lower than that for beer (some ciders do) most beers will finish between 1.005 and 1.015 but depends on lots of different factors.

Sent from my Samsung S3 using Tapatalk.

 

[snapbowen]

I put 2 brews on Friday lunchtime and they stopped bubbling yesterday, will wait till late tomorrow and take a reading. Temps were around 22-24 celsius.

 

[fcmcg]

i always wait 2 weeks before bottlimg.Lets the yeast finnisg and clean up after itself,,,,Also makes sure you dont have bottle bombs ~