Crazy active 48 hours now Zero co2 bubbles yet massive krausen remains?

[HopsAreGood]

I pitched a healthy starter of London ale 3 into 1.072 og wort on Tuesday at 7pm. My airlock went crazy for the first 48 hours and now about 60 hours post pitch there is Zero activity in terms of co2. I took a gravity sample and it’s at 1.028 and there is still a huge krausen typical of LA3 remaining. The krausen is slowly coming down as evidenced by the line in my fermenter. I’m in no way trying to rush this beer and will let it sit for at least 4-5 more days, but it just seems strange that there is absolutely ZERO airlock activity. I raised the temp from 66-70 to help encourage attenuation. Also, I mashed at 152 so not too high. Any thoughts?

 

[myndflyte]

What are you brewing in? Maybe the lid popped a little leak and CO2 is leaking out that way.

 

[cswis86]

Yeah, I'm thinking there's a leak. Check that your airlock is seated properly. Might have been pushed out of the rubber grommet it was that active.

 

[HopsAreGood]

What are you brewing in? Maybe the lid popped a little leak and CO2 is leaking out that way.

It’s a fermonster modified with keg post that runs the co2 through the future serving keg, and down a tube into a gallon water jug of star San. So that is actually my “airlock” I thought about a leak and checked but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. Also the last 12 hours or so of the first aggressive 48 hours did show a steady decline in activity..so it wasn’t from full on machine gun bubbles to nothing.

 

[HopsAreGood]

Here’s a picture of the setup: on the right is a small cooler with cold water connected to an inkbird. It runs the coolwater through a loop inside the fermenter via the rubber stopper. There’s also a Ferm wrap on the fermenter for heating purposes. The QD on top of the fermenter runs the c02 through the keg and then bubbles out through the jug of star San to the left. I think what’s happening is that it’s still creating c02 but it’s just not vigorous enough to bubble up
through the near half gallon of liquid in the jug. There is still a layer of small bubbles in the jug, but just no visible activity. So hopefully it will just finish it up slowly over the next few days.

 

[Dgallo]

I have the same set up, but less ports..just co2 and liquid posts. Just check to make sure you’re prv is closed and your call locks are pushed all the way down. You should still be throwing some co2 even if fermentation has stoped from the beer degassing. Put some soapy on you’re fittings. If it’s a leak, You’ll find it

 

[HopsAreGood]

I have the same set up, but less ports..just co2 and liquid posts. Just check to make sure you’re prv is closed and your call locks are pushed all the way down. You should still be throwing some co2 even if fermentation has stoped from the beer degassing. Put some soapy on you’re fittings. If it’s a leak, You’ll find it

So I just disconnected all the QDs and pressed the little pins inside them a few times, as sometimes they can get sticky and kind of stuck. I put them all back on and now I have a slow trickle of bubbles in the jug just like I should. Thanks everyone!

 

[ajbosley2015]

I recently had a similar issue with east coast Ale yeast, that is remarkable similar to LAIII


These are both "true-top" yeasts...that will rest for quite a while before flocculating and falling. If I were a betting man, I would say that you don't have a leak, but instead...you had yeast preventing the release of CO2 from the brew. In short, you had a situation where you were actively brewing under pressure without any other influence

I know you say you "fixed" the issue, but I bet you had enough yeast fall out to allow degassing to continue

On another note, yeast like LAIII are prime yeast for "top-cropping" If you have never done it, you should try. Similarly, these yeasts that are true-top are the devil...their results ALWAYS look like some nasty infection as the low-flocculating yeast keep surface tension and you get a pretty gnarly group of bubbles waiting to be popped

 

[Dgallo]

I recently had a similar issue with east coast Ale yeast, that is remarkable similar to LAIII


These are both "true-top" yeasts...that will rest for quite a while before flocculating and falling. If I were a betting man, I would say that you don't have a leak, but instead...you had yeast preventing the release of CO2 from the brew. In short, you had a situation where you were actively brewing under pressure without any other influence

I know you say you "fixed" the issue, but I bet you had enough yeast fall out to allow degassing to continue

On another note, yeast like LAIII are prime yeast for "top-cropping" If you have never done it, you should try. Similarly, these yeasts that are true-top are the devil...their results ALWAYS look like some nasty infection as the low-flocculating yeast keep surface tension and you get a pretty gnarly group of bubbles waiting to be popped

All ale yeast are top fermenting and as long as you put clean wort in the fv, you should be able to harvest from top cropping.

Also not buying the krausen is keeping co2 in. Doesn’t during active fermentation, why would hold it in now. Krausen is porous.

 

[ajbosley2015]

All ale yeast are top fermenting and as long as you put clean wort in the fv, you should be able to harvest from top cropping.

Also not buying the krausen is keeping co2 in. Doesn’t during active fermentation, why would hold it in now. Krausen is porous.

Yes, all ale yeast is top fermenting, but few strains act differently...LAIII is one of them.

Allow me to be clear that after the krausen has fallen with yeasts like this one, yeast remains afloat and keeps surface tension high, not allowing gas to be released. It definitely happens, and happens more than we know. It typically occurs during the last 80-100 percent of attenuation.

Yes, you can top-crop from most ale yeasts, but some are much better suited than others