Yep, it's another noob worrying about the airlock. So here is the story, it's my third batch and I made a extract kit, the airlock started and stopped rather quickly. I am worried fermentation stalled. So here are the details: Irish red ale - measured SG was 1.050 Yeast - SA04 rehydrated then pitched at 75 degrees No real temp control, ambient is around 65 degrees it took somewhere between 6 and 14 hours to get airlock activity, which stopped within 48 hours of pitching. I pitched around 4 or 5 pm, checked at 10 PM no activity, 6 am there was some slow bubbling, 5 PM activity was stronger, 5PM on day two no activity. It also doesn't look like the krausen rose very much, maybe an inch or two. Everything above that is clean. It just doesn't seem like there was active fermentation long enough for the fermentation to be done putting off C02. I am mostly basing this off my experience on the last two batches, both of which used liquid yeast, and bubbled for 4 - 10 days and both of which had krausen going up the airlock. Is it possible that fermentation really took off and I missed it? At this point I plan on waiting until the end of the week and taking a gravity reading and seeing what I looks like. If my gravity is still high what are my options (and what is high gravity)? I assume about all I can do is get another package of yeast and pitch it.
Better yet, wait about two weeks after brewday to take a gravity reading. Nothing you said in your post makes me think your fermentation hasn't been perfectly normal. There are several things to try. But you're trying to solve a problem that probably doesn't exist. "High gravity" would be something more than a few gravity points above what you were expecting. There's no hard and fast rule, because the expectations themselves can be a problem.
Sometimes fermentation can happen 'in the blink of an eye' and we all get worried when that happens. I think your beer will be fine. Wait the two weeks like VikeMan says.
