Very active first 24 hours then not so much

[lefty96]

Sunday, I brewed my first batch of beer and put it into the fermenter. After about 4 hours, I had bubbles in the airlock and after about 12 hours I had very frequent bubbles through the airlock. Monday morning, the big mouth bubbler was near full of foam and the airlock was spitting sanitizer out. When I got home Monday evening, the foam had settled and the airlock was barely bubbling. It looked the same this morning. I'm curious what is going on or if this is somewhat expected. Temperatures in the closet the beer is sitting have been steady in the mid to upper 60's and the kit was a extract kit(Caribou Slobber) and the yeast was rehydrated so I'm not sure what I could have messed up.

 

[kombat]

What makes you think you've messed anything up?

What was the yeast? If it was S-04, that's a notoriously fast fermenter.

 

[lefty96]

What makes you think you've messed anything up?

What was the yeast? If it was S-04, that's a notoriously fast fermenter.

Nothing makes me think I messed up per say, it just struck me as odd that I spent most of the day Monday hoping I didn't come home to a mess to come home to nothing much going on. I certainly have no real frame of reference as to what to expect.

The yeast is a Danstar Windsor Ale dry yeast. It was re-hydrated per the instructions on the packet.

 

[eadavis80]

It's probably fine. Sometimes different yeast strains just go really active early on and then seemingly are dormant, but as long as when you check gravity, it is dropping, it's fine. My current batch of Oktoberfest did the same thing - crazy airlock for the first 24 hours, then seemingly nothing, but I can see stuff still moving around in the Big Mouth, so just because the airlock is at rest does not mean the yeast is.

 

[lefty96]

I may have to go ahead and get a hydrometer. I was going to hold off for this first round and add it and a wort chiller down the road, but curiosity may kill me on this deal.

 

[kombat]

it just struck me as odd that I spent most of the day Monday hoping I didn't come home to a mess to come home to nothing much going on.

It could be fine, or it could mean that you fermented a little warm. I'm not familiar enough with that particular yeast to know it's "sweet spot," but make sure you're measuring the beer temperature, not the room temperature. Fermenting beer generates its own heat, and can be several degrees warmer than the surrounding air. A good way to check actual beer temperature is to attach one of those stick-on thermometers to the outside of your fermenter. A better way is with a thermowell, but one step at a time.

I may have to go ahead and get a hydrometer.

You should absolutely get a hydrometer. They're dirt-cheap, and they're essential for knowing when fermentation is complete, not to mention calculating your resulting alcohol content.

My current batch of Oktoberfest did the same thing - crazy airlock for the first 24 hours, then seemingly nothing

That could be worrisome; Oktoberfest is a lager, and should definitely NOT be finished in 24 hours. My lagers are typically active for at least a week. Are you perhaps using an ale yeast instead? What temperature are you fermenting at?

 

[lefty96]

It could be fine, or it could mean that you fermented a little warm. I'm not familiar enough with that particular yeast to know it's "sweet spot," but make sure you're measuring the beer temperature, not the room temperature. Fermenting beer generates its own heat, and can be several degrees warmer than the surrounding air. A good way to check actual beer temperature is to attach one of those stick-on thermometers to the outside of your fermenter. A better way is with a thermowell, but one step at a time.
?

I got the wort down to room temp before I moved it to the fermenter. I tested this with a sanitized digital oven thermometer submerged in the middle of the wort.

The temps I posted on the closet are from a stick on thermometer outside the fermenter.

I may check the local brew shops for a hydrometer set up. It's something I want to get and learn to use; I was trying not to go all in and be completely OCD about things from the get go - it's a bit of a habit I have.

 

[podz]

You should absolutely get a hydrometer. They're dirt-cheap, and they're essential for knowing when fermentation is complete, not to mention calculating your resulting alcohol content.

They are also wildly inaccurate if you don't know how to use them.

Tip: get a 100ml graduated cylinder made of glass and make sure your sample sits long enough that it's not full of air bubbles that can skew your reading 10 to 20 points higher than reality, or more.

 

[lefty96]

Got home today(Tuesday) and no real change. There is definitely sediment forming at the bottom and if there are bubbles passing through the air lock, they are more infrequent than my patience can last. Can't tell if there is any yeast moving around as it is still so cloudy. Fermenter temp is at 68, I have the closet opened up a bit to change up the air flow just as an experiment. I can't get to the home brew store til Friday for a hydrometer so that's not a option for now.

 

[nwbrewing32]

To compliment what has already been said: This is normal. Most of my batches only have visually-active fermentation for 48-60 hours. After that, you might see some bubbles come up in the beer itself (if you have a carboy and not a bucket) but all the action is done. A lot of my beers are using S-04 which as mentioned before, is a beast and settles down quick.

Now! Just because the airlock has settled and the krausen is gone does not mean it is done fermenting. The only way to know for sure is to measure the gravity and get 3 days of consecutive readings. So, measure on Monday then again on Wednesday. If it's the same (and around your estimated FG) then you're done.

Happy Brewing -

 

[mark1765]

Not trying to hijack lefty96's thread but I have a very similar thing going on with an Irish Red recipe I brewed on Sat. Very active on Sunday but almost nothing on Monday and little to nothing going on today. My question is I usually leave my brew in the fermenter for 3 weeks without touching it. I don't take the top off to check gravity levels or to look at it until 3 weeks have passed. Then I check it and transfer straight to the bottling bucket, and bottle. Since I have no activity should I change what I normally do for this batch or stick to what has worked in the past?

 

[BMBC]

I just brewed a brown ale on Monday night using Windsor. I woke up yesterday to find it happily fermenting away with a nice tall krausen. Came home yesterday and it was taller still. I woke up this morning hoping not to find yeast gunk spewing out of the carboy into my fermentation chamber. What I found was the same as you. The krausen had receded and the airlock was almost inactive after barely 24 hours.

I'm not going to worry about it. It looks okay and I know the temps are good (65-68F) so I'll give it its full three weeks and go from there.

 

[eadavis80]

Kombat - My Oktoberfest that you asked about was made with WYeast 2112. It has been about 62 for its first week. I took a gravity reading yesterday - one week after fermentation - and it was only 1.021. OG was 1.052. I chatted with N. Brewer about it and they suggested gently swirling the bucket and raising the fermenter's temp a few degrees. So, now it's at about 64 degrees after moving it upstairs. I'll give it a week in its new location and hope for a lower gravity of 1.015 or less, which is what NB suggested. After moving the carboy, the airlock started doing its thing again yesterday for a bit.