Why Is My Airlock Bubbling?

[Acasta]

Now i know what your thinking, "another amature complaining about his airlock", but this question is in reverse of the normal! So i think it makes it thread worthy.
I've had a Pale kit in the fermentor for 11days and its still bubbling, however, the hydrometer indicated that fermentation stopped 2 days ago. Im not sure weather or no to bottle. As some of you may have seen my other thread about the exploding bottle!

 

[chappo1970]

Now i know what your thinking, "another amature complaining about his airlock", but this question is in reverse of the normal! So i think it makes it thread worthy.
I've had a Pale kit in the fermentor for 11days and its still bubbling, however, the hydrometer indicated that fermentation stopped 2 days ago. Im not sure weather or no to bottle. As some of you may have seen my other thread about the exploding bottle!

Yep I saw that thread and can understand why you are gun shy. At what Grav has it stopped?

 

[raven19]

Could be CO2 coming out of solution, change it pressures, temp, etc.

If in doubt rack to a secondary container for a week - then bottle.

Continue to check the gravity too as per Chap Chap's post above.

 

[Acasta]

its at about 1009, down from 1040.
The Fermentables were Coopers Kit, 1kg DME and .3kg dex.

I would rack, but have no secondary atm, its got another brew in it, i do have a priming vessle which ill use and if it seems ok ill bottle with less sugar then normal.

 

[chappo1970]

its at about 1009, down from 1040.
The Fermentables were Coopers Kit, 1kg DME and .3kg dex.

I would rack, but have no secondary atm, its got another brew in it, i do have a priming vessle which ill use and if it seems ok ill bottle with less sugar then normal.

1009 sounds normal enough with your recipe. My thinking is a per Raven but considering you don't have a 2nd vessle to rack too maybe have a taste to be sure there aren't any off flavours to rule out an infection. I would then leave it for a few more days, taste again, if still good crash chill and bottle.

Chap Chap

 

[Nick JD]

A little off topic, but I think a lot of bottle bombs can be put down to bottle infections.

The sugar you put in your bottles gives 0.5% alcohol. I reckon most bottles could probably handle twice that level of carbonation without exploding, that's the CO2 by product of say, 1% alcohol.

If your beer is 4% then you can see just how much sugaz you'd need to leave in the bottle to make it a bomb - shitloads. You can taste that level of sugaz.

 

[QldKev]

A little off topic, but I think a lot of bottle bombs can be put down to bottle infections.

The sugar you put in your bottles gives 0.5% alcohol. I reckon most bottles could probably handle twice that level of carbonation without exploding, that's the CO2 by product of say, 1% alcohol.

If your beer is 4% then you can see just how much sugaz you'd need to leave in the bottle to make it a bomb - shitloads. You can taste that level of sugaz.

I agree with Nick here that most are due to infections. The only other time I can see it happening is if the brew stalls at say 1.020, the brewer doesn't check gravity and then is generous with the priming sugar.

In the OP case, a lot of the dissolved CO2 will be released when bottling. Also all my brews get a temp bump to ensure they are finished. i.e if Im brewing with US05 at 18, after about 8 to 10 days once I believe the beer is fully brewed out, I bump the temp to 20 for at least 24 hours before crash chilling.

QldKev

 

[ballzac]

I agree with Nick here that most are due to infections. The only other time I can see it happening is if the brew stalls at say 1.020, the brewer doesn't check gravity and then is generous with the priming sugar.

Also, with beverages that have a lower FG. It's been known to happen when people add enzymes to their beer. My only ever bottle bombs were a cider. The SG stayed the same for a couple of weeks (about 1.005 IIRC). I figured it was done and bottled it. A couple of weeks later I chilled one and cracked it open. It was very fizzy, but more noticable was that it had dried out considerably. A few weeks later three exploded on a hot day. I waited for a cool night to even venture into the shed where I had them stored, and opened them all and recapped them.

 

[HoppingMad]

It's haunted h34r:

Phone an exorcist immediately.