I'm fermenting a Bavarian Hef and it's on day 12 of fermenting and it's still burping. After reading about how active the Hef's ferment I have a blow off into a coffee "can" and every couple minutes it burps. (It has settled down quite a bit in the last few days but still burping) I dont have gravity readings as this is my third brew and didnt get a hydrometer until yesterday when I went bought that and some other stuff. Is this normal for this type of brew?
I've never had a hefe take 12+ days to ferment, but it's possible, depending on a number of factors. Take a hydrometer reading. Then take another in 2-3 days. If they are the same and roughly what you expected, attenuation is finished.
I've not yet brewed a hefe until yesterday, a Blue Moon copy. Fermentation just started this afternoon so about 24hrs lag time. What yeast are you using? I'm using this and, well, read the comments. Lots of comments about aggressive fermentation, needing good headspace but lots of comments about needing to "wake" the yeast. I've not had that happen before but I've only used Cali ale yeasts. Since my conical was otherwise engaged I'm fermenting in a Better Bottle in the garage with a heating pad which gets kicked on due to a home-built temp controller and a thermowell in the Better Bottle. I've set my ferm temp to be 21C, about 70F. My OG was 1.051 so this one shouldn't take too long. I'm keeping an eye on it because I'm not using a blow-off tube. The yeast is supposed to be low flocculator, but at the moment it's acting like an English ale yeast: lots of clumping together.
BTW, @VikeMan he says it burps every couple of minutes. One bubble every 2 mins? Can't you call that done? Sure, take a hydrometer reading or two and compare it with your final gravity, if you know what it is, although you don't know what it was to begin with.
Is it bubbling every couple of minutes because of a temperature/pressure change, or because it's still making CO2 (because it perhaps fermented at a low temp, or due to severe underpitching, or under-oxygenation, or...)? That's what two gravity readings, 2-3 days apart, would tell him. If the OP really knew his equipment and process inside out, he'd be in a position to make a very good guess, but it's his third batch.
