Having learned from my mistakes on my first couple of batches, I am know fermenting at around 68-70F. My prior temp was around 75-78F and my yeast would blow up and run its course in the first 3-4 days. My current batch is 9 days in and still putting along. It has definitely slowed and I have read fermentation can take 5-14 days. Is this pretty typical?


Tags: bottling beer while fermenter is still bubbling, fermentation duration questions, brewing duration

Day 13 - Still fermenting, 1 bubble about every 35 seconds. Do I need to wait until bubbling completely stops or can I measure gravity and start bottling if my value is where it needs to be?

Never bottle your beer until fermentation has finished! Your numbers are just an estimate, the real numbers are whatever the yeast dictate. If you bottle your beer while fermentation is still ongoing, you will likely end up with several bottle grenades exploding in your closet.

Cheers,
Dave

If you think this is frustrating, wait until you try to make a lager . I had one ferment for two months.

Yeah, I'm STILL bubbling. Very, very slowly but burping every few minutes. The thing that I am getting frustrated about is that at this stage in the game I am chomping at the bit to keep my "production line" moving. But I only have a few carboys right now and I only have ONE cube cooler to keep my temps under control. I don't have anywhere to put a temperature controlled deep freezer, but damn would it be very useful right now. I may just bite the bullet and make me another cube cooler contraption so I can get another batch going. This brew better be worth the wait!

To be fair, if your fermenter is very well sealed, this very slow bubbling might just be the CO2 coming out of suspension. It wouldn't hurt to check the SG and see where it's at, I just wouldn't bottle it yet. If you can rack to a secondary, that would be ideal. I don't think it would hurt to have your secondary a little on the warm side, you just don't want your main fermentation happening too warm.

Took a gravity reading and came in at 1.032. Target FG is 1.015. A little ways off. It is in a secondary fermenter (12 days). Should I let the temp come up to room temp? It will be around 75 - 78. Or should I just leave it in the cooler and not replace the ice water bottles like I have? It will probably come up to 72 - 74. What about getting the yeast to work a little harder? Is it advisable agitate/oxygenate it to get the yeast active again at this point? Beer tastes really good, just needs some more alcohol.

I wouldn't bring the fermenter up to room temperature while your beer is still fermenting. I also wouldn't aerate the beer. You will run the risk of oxidation off flavors if you do. If you have yeast settlement, it might be a good idea to swirl your carboy around a bit to get it back into suspension.
When you racked your beer into secondary, was there a good bit of settlement on the bottom of the primary? If so, you may have left behind the bulk of your good yeast, and your beer is suffering for it. The same thing sometimes happens in beers that have a lot of blow-off. The beer ferments slowly afterwards because all the yeast has blown out of the top of the carboy.

Good luck with your beer!

Cheers,
Dave

***THE SAGA CONTINUES***

Here we are over 6 weeks (Aug. 9th) since brewing day and my airlock is bubbling very slowly but surely. I did end up re-pitching Nottingham on the 27th - could be interesting with two different types of yeast. Anyway, I took a gravity reading on September 18th and I was at 1.018 (target is 1.015) - almost there.

My question at this point is if I take a gravity reading and it's at 1.015 or below, and is still slowly bubbling, do I wait to bottle?

How slow are the bubbles we're talking about? Back in the "college fermentation" days, our rule of thumb was to bottle as soon as it went to less than one bubble a minute (yeah, we bottled a lot of beer way to young) and never had a bottle bomb. The fermentation creates plenty of CO2 that very slowly comes out of suspension and if your fermenter is very well sealed it will bubble very slowly for quite a while. I'd check the gravity again after few days and if it's not changing, go ahead and bottle. If there is still a small amount of fermenting occuring, at this point it'll just cause a little extra carbonation, not bottle bombs (DISCLAIMER: Not an actual expert, just a guy offering friendly advice!). I've never seen an ale take anywhere near six weeks to finish. I bet you're good-to-go.

It's bubbling once about every minute and 5-10 seconds. I think I'm just going to plan on bottling this weekend.

I just can't imagine this is still fermenting. I think you're fine to bottle. Is it looking clear? I'm sure it's starting to, and that's a sure sign that fermentation is over.

Coming late to this thread, sorry.

Recently, there was a recall on Nottingham Dry Yeast Lot #1081140118V. Nothing contaminated, but the yeast exhibited slow and incomplete fermentation.

When a company like Danstar makes a run of yeast, there are millions of packages. Big suppliers, like Crosby & Baker may only order 1x per year, so they tend to get all one lot, and it lasts the year.