Belgain yeast=short bubbling in airlock?

On my 3rd extract batch. 1st was a hefeweizen kit that didn't come out great but with some off flavor. 2nd was an Irish red that came out very nicely. This time I decided to try a kit a little fancier with a liquid yeast. The Harriet's West Side Ipa from Midwest.

Anyway my question is that it seems the bubbling in the airlock started at the right time but only lasted about 24 hours. Room temp between 62-66 mostly. I know it is probably still working a bit but I was wondering if this is a common occurrence? Airlock bubbling was rapid when it was there. I used the Belgian liquid yeast option that was available from the site. Thanks for the help.

Airlock bubbles are fairly meaningless, especially if you are using a bucket fermentor. If you are using a clear fermentor, you can use visual cues (mostly what the surface of the beer looks like, and to a certain extent the amount of bubbles coming up from the sediment) to gauge fermentation process to figure out when to start taking hydrometer readings.

That said, the bulk of fermentation in many beers only takes 2-3 days, so I wouldn't be concerned. Give it a couple of weeks and then test it.

Airlock activity varies between yeast strains. Liquid yeast typically needs to have a starter, so you may have underpitched to start and it needs to catch back up. It'll be fine, let it sit for 10-14 days then check your SG.

No more bubbles in the airlock just means that there's no more bubbles in your airlock, NOT that fermentation is done...An airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it's a vent to bleed off EXCESS gas, be it oxygen or EXCESS co2. It shouldn't be looked at as anything else, because an airlock can bubble or stop bubbling for whatever reasons, including a change in temperature (gas expands and contracts depending on ambient temps) changes in barometric pressure (You can have bubbling or suckback in the airlock, depending on pressure on the fermenter) whether or not a truck is going by on the street, the vacuum cleaner is running, or your dog is trying to have sex with the fermenter. Or co2 can get out around the lid of the bucket or the bung...it doesn't matter how the co2 gets out, just that it is.

And bubbles don't coordinate with anything concrete within the fermenter either, "x bubbles/y minute" does NOT TRANSLATE to any numerical change in gravity....if an instruction says do something when bubbles do something per something, throw the instructions out.

Fermentation is not always dynamic, just because you can't see what's going on, doesn't mean nothing is going on. And just because your airlock starts up, and then slows down or stops in a few days, doesn't mean fermentation is over YET, it just means the excess co2 is not coming out of the airlock...not that the yeast is done.

The only way to know how your beer is doing is to take a hydrometer reading, if you're worried. But not until 72 hours have gone by. Then if you're still concerned, take one...then you'll know.

Counting bubbles does not equate to anything usable in fermentation. It's not like "x bubbles/minute= y gravity points." It just means that co2 is being released....but it could also NOT be bubbling, and still fermenting away.

Relax, leave your beer alone and let it do it's thing for a couple more weeks, and most importantly, IGNORE what your airlock does or doesn't do.

In fact you might find this discussion on the superfluousness of airlocks something that will help you get a handle on this. It was started by a newer brewing who just grasped this concept.

The only way to know is with a grav reading.

Thanks all. Been trying to stick to the instructions completely since I'm still new. Certainly seen some contradictions here as well as the few books I've picked up and checked out.

Using a bucket this time but will probably switch over to a carboy type going forward to get a better idea what things look like when its fermenting. I'm not in any rush so ill check things out in a few days and take some readings.

Thanks for the help.