Fermentation process

Yeah sure, don't base your fermentation just off the airlock. Let it sit for another week or two and take a gravity reading.

 

If you are using a bucket I would make sure the lid is on all the way. I had the same symptoms once and it was because the fermentation was going strong and one small section of the lid popped up. You couldn't tell by looking at it but when I put a little bit of wait on it snapped back in place. After that I got bubbles again and the beer turned out fine even though it was cracked open a couple days.

 

Besides the bucket possibly leaking air and not going out the airlock, it is not at all unusual for some beers to finish most of their primary fermentation within 3 days. Depends on the yeast and the OG of the beer. Some go off like a bomb, some go slow and steady for nearly a month. Hessian257's tip about going by gravity readings is really the thing to do. When the gravity stabilizes and you are at or near your expected FG for 3 days or so, then primary is officially over.

 

Unless you will be racking your beer on top of non-typical ingredients (e.g. fruit), you don't need a secondary at all. Once you have reached final gravity (i.e. the gravity reading is the same three days apart and in the neighborhood of what you expected), leave the beer in primary for a few more days so the yeast can clean up their byproducts, then bottle or keg.

 

What are the extra ingredients?

It's okay to open it whenever necessary, like when you need to take a gravity reading.

Well, it's not checking the temp. It's checking the specific gravity. But yes, a hydrometer is an appropriate tool for measuring gravity. See this link...
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

In fact, I recommend reading everything at www.howtobrew.com

 

With fruit, the vast majority of people transfer the beer to a secondary fermenter on top of the fruit, though some people have added fruit directly to the primary. But since this is your first homebrew, I would recommend against adding fruit (or anything). By the way, I'm not a fruit beer expert, but the word "dried" is setting off alarms. Sounds like it would be very hard to extract the flavor. Hopefully someone who knows more about that can chime in.

I don't know what sugar candies are, but again, why complicate your first batch?

 

I will second VikeMan's concerns for dried fruit. Most dried fruit (that is any kind of affordable) has some sort of preservative in it to keep spoilage at bay, many of which will also inhibit yeast activity. If you were to get dried fruit in there that killed off the yeast you wouldn't be able to carbonate once you bottled it (or it would be very slow). What kind of beer did you brew?

 

Welcome to home brewing! Did you take an original gravity reading before fermentation started (just before you added the yeast)? The current gravity of 20 doesn't say much by itself. The difference between starting (original) gravity and final gravity is a better indication of how much of your ingredients fermented out. However, 20 seem a little high for a Belgian, so definitely give it more time. Resist the urge to rush the beer along.

Also, what yeast strain did you use, and are you keeping the fermentor at room temperature? Yeast strains behave differently at different temperatures, so what you see with the airlock bubbling may be normal for that yeast and temperature.

 

Try to hold a steady room temperature and live it alone for 10 days.

 

20 would be 1.020. That's a lot lower than your original gravity (whatever it was), but almost certainly higher than the final gravity expected by your recipe. Did your recipe specify a final gravity (or a final gravity range)?

 

If you can tell us how much and what type of extract (and any other fermentables) went into the wort, and what your final volume of wort in the fermenter was, plus the yeast strain, we should be able to help you estimate the original gravity and the expected final gravity.

It won't really hurt anything. It will force it to bubble, but that doesn't indicate that it's currently fermenting.

 

How much malt extract did you use?
How much water did you use?
How much liquid now in fermenter?

If you cannot tell us this- Relax. Don't worry. Have a beer.

My advice- Leave it for three more weeks and bottle. Do not press down on lid to make it bubble.