i made my first mash today of sugar, water, yeast nutrient, and yeast. My question however is that my fermenting pale is not clear. It is a white ale pail 5 gallon bucket that is a primary fermenter. i filled the airlock half way with water and placed into the rubber stopper as far as it will go. When will i know when fermentation is taking place and can i open the lid briefly to check on it. If not, how will i know when the mash is done fermenting or if it is stuck?

Of course, if you don't want to spend money that could be better used for other things, a good rule of thumb is to put it into your pail, cover it and keep it somewhere warm for about 2 weeks. That's the way I've been doing it for about 10 years now and it works fine. I try not to make to much of a science project out of it but rather something fun... after all, it's my hobby and should be enjoyed. keeping it simple ,to me,is more fun. I must brag just a little though, I've had several people born and raised in West Virginia tell me mine is the best they've ever had!!

The CO2 from the fermentation will bubble up thru the airlock, right? Bubbles = fermentation, no bubbles = no fermentation.

Also, at least in the case of fermenting for beermaking, there's little harm in waiting too long. In other words, most folks simply wait until there's been very little airlock activity for a few days.

I've never used an airlock at all--I just place the lid over the top of the fermenter and peek in occassionally. However, this is for ale yeast. Today marks my very first ever Turbo yeast ferment--but so far it seems to be working well. I have the 25L fermenter covered in my garage refridgerator, set to about 65F. This is keeping the ferment at about 70F, which is what I wanted to try to get a 7 day ferment.

I'll let you know how well it works.

Nevermind--I got it. You're checking to see if fermentation stopped because it was complete, or if it died for some reason prematurely. Gotcha.

That's a good question. Yeast go into a state called 'autolysis' which is a sort of self-digestion. I've seen this discussed in the context of massive yeast concentration in a low-nutrient situation. I can't remember what the impact is though.

What I've noticed with my first Turbo yeast ferment that is totally unlike ale yeast is the extraordinary resistance of the yeast to settle out ,floculate,. I've had my fermenter under 40F chilling for a week now, and the yeast still has not settled out completely. Very, very weird, at least when compared to British ale yeast which will settle out fast and hard when the food is gone.

In any case, at no time during the ferment did I feel this smelled 'good'...it's always had a fairly unpleasant aroma. The exception maybe is early on in the ferment--when it had the characteristic, pleasant, bread-like fragrance. That didn't last too long tho.

Anyone care to answer Lightning's question?

Rixter: that would mean you're getting a final gravity that's about 10-12% ABV or so. That seems low--but is that in fact what you're getting?

I almost forgot to answer bongo..... abv by my reading came in at about 17%, altho the yeast packet says It'll give 14%.Might have to deduct 1 or 2% for the liquid temp at the time of testing