The beer started showing signs of fermentation in 12 hours or so with fairly rapid bubbles through the airlock. About a week and a half in, the airlock had slowed to a crawl and I finally found some new vinyl tubing (my old tube was too dirty to clean) to transfer my beer to my brand new (read: found on the street) secondary fermenter.
While transferring, I found a large portion of the yeast had floated to the top of the primary and smelled awful, but the beer below, flowing into the secondary, smelled amazing, like a mountain of oranges with sugar on top. I did my best to leave the floating yeast cake in the primary.
As I was advised in the brew shop, I topped off my secondary fermenter; it took almost 2 pints of water to limit the exposed surface area. Which it appears may not have been necessary. The transfer to the secondary reawakened enough yeast to overflow my airlock and now, after almost a week in the secondary, the airlock is going every three seconds like clockwork.
As I found the incredible reawakening of my yeast a bit odd I looked it up. Apparently WLP400 (the yeast I used) takes about 3 weeks to reach terminal gravity and many people recommended stirring it regularly which would explain the resurgence after the transfer.
See you on bottling day,
Stacey
The air lock took longer than I thought it would to start bubbling but now it’s going 3-4 bubbles a second.
Fermenting away,
Stacey
The airlock has basicly stopped bubbling, I’m still gonna let it sit for another week to let as much sediment stttle as possible.
Wort worth waiting for,
Stacey
My blow off tube has stopped spewing ick and puss so it’s back to the three piece airlock. That happened faster than I thought it would.
Been about five minutes, seems to be going well. The water is still clear and the bubbles are only a second or two apart.
Brew bubbles blow off,
Stacey
Just got home from work, went to listen to the airlock (the fermenter is in a box to keep the cat away) and I didn’t hear a nice little bubble but a horrendous hiss. I opened the box to find a completely clogged airlock, it had overflowed and the hiss was high pressure gas making its way around the airlock.
The first thing I did was start to take the top off the airlock, I was then greeted with a rush of CO2, after waiting for that to clear out I removed the airlock to clean it. As I pulled out the airlock I was showered with foam (I think there is still some in my hair). So I cleaned out the airlock as quick as I could, turned around to find the airlock hole foaming over so I crammed the airlock back in the hole. It worked for about a minute and was clogged again.
Off to the internet I ran. A quick search taught me that this is common with small (exactly 5 gallons) glass fermenters and was actually a sign of strong yeast and a good fermentation. So using directions intended for a glass fermenter (mine is plastic) I used my bottling hose in the air lock hole and put the other end in a glass of water (in a mixing bowl) on the floor. This method is called a blow off tube.
So, very good fermentation makes a mess. It should slow down in a few days then I can go back to the normal 3 piece airlock, until then I have to find a way to store my new contraption (and keep the cat away).
Brewing with bubbles,
Stacey