Hi all, I brewed a belgian strong pale ale three and a half weeks ago, and the airlock is still bubbling slowly but consistently. i've been brewing for about a year, and all of my other batches have finished fermenting in under 3 weeks. this is the first time i've used a glass carboy and blowoff tube for primary (i usually ferment in a bucket with a good amount of headspace) and i know i lost a good amount of krausen, but i'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. is this normal or would it help to pitch more yeast?
How slowly is it bubbling? (Bubbles are not a good quantitative measure.) Have you taken a gravity reading? BTW, what size carboy? Hopefully at least 6 gallons (6.5 would be better) for a 5 gallon batch?
it's about one every minute, maybe one every two. i haven't taken a gravity reading yet because i just figured if it's still going then it's not quite there yet.
In that case, it's probably just CO2 slowly escaping the liquid. You should be good -- but, of course, check to make sure.
At this point I would probably take a reading, then take another in three days. If it hasn't changed and it's in the ballpark of what you expected, it's done. Bubbles simply mean there's more pressure inside than outside, not that fermentation is still necessarily happening, though it may be.
tried to post last night but it wasnt working for some reason. my gravity is at 1.018 right now, which is a tiny bit high for us. i'll see where it is on thursday.
7 lbs. Pilsener (Germany) 5 lbs Briess Light DME 1.5 lbs. Cane Sugar Generic 1.5 oz Czech Saaz (60 min) 0.5 oz Styrian Goldings (30 min) 0.4 oz Coriander Seed (10 min) 0.2 oz Ginger Root (10 min) 0.12 oz Grains of Paradise (flameout) pitched a one quart starter of WLP 550 at ~68, then fermented at 68 for 2 weeks, currently around 72. OG: 1.077
~152. we're still working on getting temp control down, as we've been doing BIAB on our stove, but this time it was pretty consistent.
