Brewferm Kriek: No bubbling in my fermenter

groom

Hi, I'm doing my third ever extract brew. It's a Brewferm Kriek. I pitched it last night. I'm a bit concerned that it isn't bubbling through the airlock nearly 24 hours later. It might be that it's only 12 litres of wort in a 25L+ fermenting bucket and it has a greater head space to fill.

The lid does seem to be bulging and if I press down on it, it bubbles through.

I think all the temperatures were good when i pitched although the wort was about 24 degrees when i pitched rather than the 20 the instructions gave. The current temperature is 20 degrees as recommended in the hot press.

Do you think the yeast is still active? Would there be anything to gain from pitching in more yeast?

Tigger

groom wrote: »

Hi, I'm doing my third ever extract brew. It's a Brewferm Kriek. I pitched it last night. I'm a bit concerned that it isn't bubbling through the airlock nearly 24 hours later. It might be that it's only 12 litres of wort in a 25L+ fermenting bucket and it has a greater head space to fill.

The lid does seem to be bulging and if I press down on it, it bubbles through.

I think all the temperatures were good when i pitched although the wort was about 24 degrees when i pitched rather than the 20 the instructions gave. The current temperature is 20 degrees as recommended in the hot press.

Do you think the yeast is still active? Would there be anything to gain from pitching in more yeast?

huge headspace to pressurise so it'll take a while to build
is there condensation on the lid and is there a ring above the liquid or foam on it?

BeerNut

groom wrote: »

Do you think the yeast is still active?

All sounds fine. Ignore the bubbler, it doesn't tell you anything useful. Give it a few days then check the gravity -- that's the only way to be sure of what's happening with the fermentation.

groom

Thanks guys. Just needed a bit of reassuring.

Would the condensation be on the outside (top) of the lid or the inside?

I can't really tell of there is kraeusen building. I've resisted lifting the lid

BeerNut

groom wrote: »

I've resisted lifting the lid

Have a look. It may make you feel better. People were making perfectly good beer for centuries before someone said "Hey, let's put a top on this thing to stop stuff from falling in."

groom

Yeah I've seen your opinion on fermenter lids Your right.
I do like a lid though as a barrier to me incessently poking at the brew and taking hourly gravity readings

groom

Had a peek.
There was condensation under the lid and a decent pop when I opened it
The kraeusen looks very wishy washy as you can see but the gravity it down to 1.28 from 1.55 after 42 hours.

Ronan|Raven

Should be fine, cover it back up and leave it! Gravity is dropping so all sounds well.