Primary with Bucket

[matty13]

Brewed my first partial mash oatmeal stout yesterday morning and am going through primary in a 6 gal bucket with hole drilled for airlock for the first time instead of glass carboy due to using that for secondary. Everything went well with brewing..pitched yeast a 79 deg OG was 1.061 which was dead on.

Just curious..every other brew previously has begun fermenting within 5-10 hours post brew in the carboy and the airlock was going nuts. There is no activity thus far with the airlock almost 20 hrs since brew. Does it take longer due to being in a bucket for the airlock to begin bubbling? Thanks.

 

[sociald1077]

Most likely just a bad seal on your lid. Not too much to worry about.

 

[jtkratzer]

The two batches I've done with liquid yeast took longer to get started than the batch I did with dry yeast. The dry yeast started fermentation in under 12 hours. The liquid yeast took closer to 24 hours. They've all been in plastic buckets.

 

[matty13]

Did you know it started due to the airlock?

 

[jtkratzer]

Did you know it started due to the airlock?

Yes, the inside piece of the airlock started to rise and then eventually started to bubble.

The airlocks I have look like this:

And the inside piece rises with the pressure from the co2. Toward the end of the fermentation when it slows down, I'll push on the lid to push the co2 out and let the inside piece settle and see how long it takes to rise to where it bubbles again. My hefeweizen has been in the primary for 10 days as of today and it's been almost 24 hours since I pressed the lid to get the inside of the airlock to rest on the tube and it's up a bit this morning, but not enough to let a bubble out. I think it's getting close to its final gravity and I'm going to check it tonight after work.

 

[Revvy]

all you know no is that your airlock is bubbling NOT the state of your fermentation. Airlock bubbling starting suddenly doesn't necessarily mean fermentation has started, nor does airlock bubbling stopping suddenly mean that fermentation has stopped. You really need to grasp this fact and seperate airlock bubbling in your mind from fermentation.

Your airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it is a VALVE to release excess co2. To keep your beer off your ceiling. Nothing more.


That's why you need to take a gravity reading to know how your fermentation is going, NOT go by airlocks, or size of krausen, or a calendar, the horoscope or the phases of the moon (those things in my mind are equally accurate).

The most important tool you can use is a hydrometer. It's the only way you will truly know when your beer is ready...airlock bubbles and other things are faulty.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" like repitching, or bottling, or racking, without first taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on?

Sorry but that really is the only answer that is accurate or consistant, the numbers on the little stick. I have had evrey airlock bubbling/non bubbling/slow bubbling/fast bubbling/little krausen/big krausen/slow forming krausen/krausen staying 3 weeks after the hydro showed terminal gravity scenario imaginable in nearly 1,000 gallons of beer, and none of that stuff is as accurate as 30 seconds with a hydrometer.

But really it is just to soon to worry about it. First and foremost it hasn't been 72 hours yet...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/, and by visible signs we don't necessarily mean a bubbling airlock.
It IS a sticky at the top of the beginners forum for a reason, afterall.

 

[jtkratzer]

I was using the airlock as an indicator that something may or may not be happening and that obviously when the airlock goes from nothing to going crazy to next to nothing again, that something has occurred in that bucket - not a sign that something has come to a complete conclusion.

The airlock had really slowed down by last Friday after the yeast was pitched about a week prior. I opened the bucket to take a gravity reading and there was still copious amounts of krausen and the gravity was 1.020 - still too high for the beer, so I closed it back up and I'm going to check it today after work - 4 days have passed since I last checked it. If it's down where it's supposed to be, I'll check it again on Friday to confirm the gravity is stable and I will bottle it then. If not, it gets sealed back up and I wait longer.

Should I be doing something different or am I on the right track?