Four weeks and still bubbling.

[SteveWTBD]

I have an all grain brew in a demijohn that is still bubbling away coming up to four weeks fermenting.

After about a week I put it in the garage for around ten days, where it cooled down and stopped bubbling. I brought it in the kitchen with a view to bottling and it started up bubbling again. It is still bubbling away with no sign of slowing down a week later.

Should I just wait until it stops, or would it be ok to get on and bottle it up?

As a newbie, I realise this might be a very basic question!

Cheers

Steve

 

[JFB]

That is a long time for a standard brewers yeast. But if its still bubbling don't bottle..

 

[Gerryjo]

Have you taken a hydrometer reading yet?
I would say it's done but check the reading and a day or two later check it again and you'll probably find that it doesn't change.If so bottle it.

Sent from my Hudl 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Deadhead]

That's a long one - Yeah, take some gravity readings. Airlocks don't always tell the whole story

 

[Graz]

I just had a similar dilemma with a wine I'm making, still gently bubbling weeks later, took a reading off it last night and it was at 0.990 so very dry. I suspect the bubbling is more due to the CO2 it absorbed during fermentation escaping rather than any actual yeast activity.

Anyway now stabilised and finings added so it's not going to do anything more!

 

[Cwrw666]

The clue is in the `still bubbling away'.
I've had longer ferments with beer and some blackberry wine we put on last year took over 6 months.

 

[SteveWTBD]

By way of update, I took a hydrometer reading this evening- 1.030!!

I am guessing that I took it into the garage too early and the temperature was too low and the fermentation slowed down until I brought it back inside. Now it's nice and toasty in the utility room where the boiler lives. It's at a pretty constant 22C.

I'm going to forget it for another week and see how things are looking then.

Cheers

Steve

 

[sven945]

Obviously not the case here, but cold beer holds more carbon dioxide in solution than warm beer (when not under pressure), so moving a fermented FV of beer from a cold garage to a warm kitchen will mean bubbling as the beer warms up and the CO2 comes out of solution.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Four weeks is a very long time. Even if your "lagering" at a really low temp.
I fear the worst....dont chuck it away just yet.
Was it bubbling from week 1

 

[terrym]

I'm going to forget it for another week and see how things are looking then.

That's what I'd do, although I wouldn't have moved it into the cold garage after only a week in the first place. :whistle:

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

I've recently taken 4 weeks on a batch (after advice from TerryM). Worth the wait. It is what it is.

 

[johnbarleycorn]

That's what I'd do, although I wouldn't have moved it into the cold garage after only a week in the first place. :whistle:

+1.....it was still cold outside a month ago....let it do its thing, ive still got a wherry thats been slowly, and i mean slowly, chugging (crawling) since early jan.. its still not ready !

 

[Covrich]

Take a gravity reading

How often is the bubbling? with finished you can get the odd bubble with CO2 escaping.

 

[SteveWTBD]

Four weeks is a very long time. Even if your "lagering" at a really low temp.
I fear the worst....dont chuck it away just yet.
Was it bubbling from week 1

Oh yes, bubbled like a good'n from day one. Probably stopped when it was in the garage as I wasn't looking!