52 Hrs .... and no bubbling?

[cheeseheadnate]

it finally started bubbling at the 72 hour mark, there is a video clip of it in the thread of the convo. thanks guy.

I cooked a batch of English Pale Ale, and ultimately once I cooled the wort down to 70° F, I transferred it to a 5gallon bucket with lid & airlock then I added the yeast. (per the Brewer's Best instructions).

So at this point it has been roughly 52 hours since I put the lid on the bucket, and while I can see some very "tiny" air bubbles in the airlock it is NOT Bubbling as I expected.

The fermentation bucket is in a dark basement pantry, and the stable temperature is approx. 64° F. In a previous post other brewers said I would be good even if it is a couple degrees cooler, since I'm using the Nottingham Yeast.

So am I just being overly anxious, and should give it more time to start bubbling or should I open it up and see what's going on in there ?

I think moving forward I will use my plastic carboy, instead of the bucket so I can see whats going on inside during the process.

Here is a link to a short 20 sec video I posted, so you can see the airlock as it is right now at post time.

http://youtu.be/rJtdzrVbi3Y

 

[sputnam]

i just had an experience last week that, even in a clear better bottle, I saw no signs of life until hour 51. I was getting concerned but was not going to react until a full 72 hours in. It was a wyeast pack of london ale yeast. I checked with mr malty and found out I probably should have made a starter. Anyway, I know what you are going thru and I say wait til the 73rd hour to do anything.

and btw, I have NO idea how people ferment in a bucket, I think it would drive me Nucking Futz!

 

[zgreenside]

I cooked a batch of English Pale Ale, and ultimately once I cooled the wort down to 70° F, I transferred it to a 5gallon bucket with lid & airlock then I added the yeast. (per the Brewer's Best instructions).

So at this point it has been roughly 52 hours since I put the lid on the bucket, and while I can see some very "tiny" air bubbles in the airlock it is NOT Bubbling as I expected.

The fermentation bucket is in a dark basement pantry, and the stable temperature is approx. 64° F. In a previous post other brewers said I would be good even if it is a couple degrees cooler, since I'm using the Nottingham Yeast.

So am I just being overly anxious, and should give it more time to start bubbling or should I open it up and see what's going on in there ?

I think moving forward I will use my plastic carboy, instead of the bucket so I can see whats going on inside during the process.

Here is a link to a short 20 sec video I posted, so you can see the airlock as it is right now at post time.

http://youtu.be/rJtdzrVbi3Y

Holy cow, that's really dead...when you said little bubbles I was thinking the inner piece was up and tilted and it was bubbling slowly...it looks like there is virtually zero CO2 coming out. Is it still the same way now?

I believe I have read that airlock activity doesn't always equal to a working or non working beer though.

It will help to get some more details though to see what might be going on.

What was the OG?
You used liquid yeast yeah?
Was it a swell pack? If so, did it swell?
Did you do a starter?
Did the yeast sit out for too long, or did you not let them warm up enough?

I may get flamed for this, but have you checked to see if there's a krausen on top? I'm a little more loose with my brewing and don't mind checking when I brew in a bucket, I just make sure and spray star san all along the outside of the bucket to make sure nothing from the outside of the bucket finds its way in when I remove the lid. If you have no krausen, no signs of mold, and you check the gravity and it's still your OG, I would repitch yeast, but I would do so with a starter to make sure the yeast are good and healthy prior to pitching. That is what I personally would do.
I suspect that you may have a very slowly working good yeast, or the yeast you used were damaged in some way and they aren't working, but more likely you just have an underpitched beer.

i just had an experience last week that, even in a clear better bottle, I saw no signs of life until hour 51. I was getting concerned but was not going to react until a full 72 hours in. It was a wyeast pack of london ale yeast. I checked with mr malty and found out I probably should have made a starter. Anyway, I know what you are going thru and I say wait til the 73rd hour to do anything.

and btw, I have NO idea how people ferment in a bucket, I think it would drive me Nucking Futz!

Pssh, easy peezy
I will say though, you haven't lived life until you come around the corner at 5am starting to get ready for work, only to see the lid of your fermenter LITERALLY blow off and hit the ceiling, leaving a trail of krausen/wort all up the wall and down the floor. I can't even make that **** up, it was perfect (or I guess not? lol) timing...I let out an audible "W T F?!", my wife said she heard me and closed her eyes real tight and prayed I didn't wake her to ask for help hahahaha.

My beer was the first of my own concoction, and was to be named after myself (or my nickname rather) "Jack's Double Ale" - I felt it was only fitting that it be renamed "Angry Jack's Double Ale".

Sorry for the story lol! I'll have to repost this and ask others to share their stories

 

[McKnuckle]

Have you used this bucket before? My Ale Pail lid goes on very, very tightly but nevertheless is NOT sealed enough to force the airlock to bubble. Put simply, it doesn't bubble. Stick your nose in the pail and breathe in. If it's out-gassing CO2 you will smell and feel it for sure!

 

[LLBeanJ]

A lack of bubbles in the airlock means nothing. Pop the lid and see if there is krausen on top. If so, you're good.

 

[Rockn_M]

Don't trust airlock activity. It is not a good way to tell if you are fermenting or not. You can open it up and take a look to see if you have any krausen or tell it's starting to ferment. If you didn't pitch enough yeast it can take a few days. I wouldn't worry until after 72hours.

 

[Sailingeric]

My airlock activity is 50/50 on my brewcraft buckets. They are not the most airtight but light enough I can see the krausen ring. That is what is important.

 

[hunter_le five]

Crack open the lid and take a peek. If you see foam, you're fine.

It's fairly common for bucket fermenters to develop small leaks in the lid seals, and consequently they will not bubble the airlock. It's nothing to be concerned about.

 

[Bobbybob]

I have had a super saturated wort a couple of times. I once nuged a better bottle with a toe after 36 hours dormant. I looked away for a moment, just a few seconds and heard a hissing squeal. I lost almost a gallon and a half and painted the ceiling. If you rouse the yeast put a rag with starsan over the air lock before you shake the bucket.

 

[cheeseheadnate]

update .... about 72 hrs and it is now bubbling pretty good.



Hopefully this is going "good" since it took so long to start.

 

[firerat]

Apparently your video is private.

Good to hear it's bubbling away though.

 

[cheeseheadnate]

sorry about that I have made the video clip "public".

 

[sputnam]

that is probably a sign of not pitching enough yeast...at least that was my problem.

 

[cheeseheadnate]

that is probably a sign of not pitching enough yeast...at least that was my problem.

I used what came in the ingredients kit. Seems okay since it started. .... it's bubbling steady now.

 

[Brew_G]

I used what came in the ingredients kit. Seems okay since it started. .... it's bubbling steady now.

Did it come with liquid yeast? If so, there's a very good chance it was underpitched because vials and smack packs don't contain enough viable cells for a full pitch, and if the yeast was old there are that many fewer viable cells. This is why people make starters. Not course, if it was dry yeast then this doesn't apply.

You can make perfectly good beer without a starter in 5-gallon batches, but there's a very good chance that your results will be inconsistent over a period of time if you don't.

 

[beersk]

This same thing happened to me on a lager this week. Brewed on Sunday, pitched the yeast around 6pm. I think my mistake was pitching warm, rehyrdrated yeast into cold (45F) wort. Had no activity the next morning as I usually do...okay, a little worried, but no big deal, sitting at 48F. That evening, still nothing. Popped the lid, nothing. So I raised the temp a few degrees to 51. Another 24 hours, nothing, no krausen, let rise to 53F, nothing. God damn it, alright. So I let temp free rise to 60, finally it was bubbling the next morning. So about 60 hours after pitching, it finally started showing signs of life. This was all after aerating with pure 02 for a couple minutes, rehydrating 2 packets of 34/70 in 4 gallons of 1.048 helles wort. Kinda frustrating, but I guess ya just need to wait. I was juuuuust about to pitch a packet of US-05.
It won't be the best batch of helles fermenting so warm, but 34/70 is pretty resilient and clean, so hoping for something decent. Ugh. Might just have to start doing starters from liquid yeast...much more reliable.

 

[LLBeanJ]

My experience with lagers is 36-48 hours before the krausen appears, and since it's a lager (i.e., bottom fermenting), the krausen on top tends to be a lot thinner than what you normally get with ales.

 

[cheeseheadnate]

It's was a packet of dry yeast "nothingham"." It has been fermenting in a stable 64 degrees. And still bubbling g good as of a few minutes ago.

 

[AerationStation]

It's was a packet of dry yeast "nothingham"." It has been fermenting in a stable 64 degrees. And still bubbling g good as of a few minutes ago.

Did you rehydrate or just sprinkle the yeast on top of the cool wort?

 

[cheeseheadnate]

I cooled the wort to 70° F and then sprinkled the yeast in, then stirred it. (this was done according to the Brewer's Best directions).