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What constitutes vigorous bubbling?

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C

cabeasle

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 11, 2011
56
1
0
Hello again,

I made up my first batch of mead five days ago, and the bubbling in the airlock has already begun to slow (though it was never all that fast to begin with, in my opinion), so I figured I would ask... exactly how fast is "vigorously bubbling"? This being my first mead, I'm not really sure what to expect.

On the first day out it was bubbling once every 4 seconds.
Second day - once every three
Third day - once every two
Fourth - once every three
Fifth (current) - once every three to four.

Should it be moving faster than this, or is this speed appropriate? I did not use a hydrometer, so I cannot judge it by the gravity (a mistake I won't make again).
 
Bubbling rates go all over the place, depend on how much water is in the lock, tiny leaks around the stopper, all kinds of things. Definitely nothing to worry about, those were decent rates of bubbles so something was definitely happening in there! To see how close to done it is a hydrometer is really the only thing to tell you anything useful - even if you didn't get the starting gravity, watching the gravity over the next days could give you plenty of useful info.
 
The speed of fermentation is affected by things like the amount of nutrients that the yeast you used requires and has available, the temperature of fermentation, etc. A hydrometer is really an essential (and cheap) tool to have.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I picked up a hydrometer, so I will start playing around with it and seeing what sort of results I get.
 
IME once every 4 seconds would still fall in the "vigorous" range. I wouldn't call it "slowed" until it was around every 15 seconds, and even then it's not done.
 
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