Airlock activity started a couple of hours after pitching the yeast 2 days ago, and has increased steadily ever since. Right now there’s an audible fizzing coming from the plastic brew bucket and the airlock is popping enthusiastically.
I used Bag-Thing to harvest some of the CO2 that’s being produced in order to prevent suck-back on Second Blonde which just started cold-crashing. Let’s hope there’s no difference in the CO2 that’s produced by cider and that which comes from beer. Usual sanitation procedures were observed.
Both these brews have entered the next phase in their fermentation as I post this update following a night out on a steam train stargazing experience. Long story.
Summer Turbo is fermenting furiously if steadily; no yeast carpet at all left on top of the foam, which is made up up very small bubbles that disperse immediately, leaving no layer at all on top of the brew. There’s a strong fizzing sound from this FV, like Coke poured into a microphone, like acid dissolving part of a crime scene. The flakes of yeast which were seen earlier falling and rising are now gone, just a mist of bubbles rising through the murk and then popping at the surface, leaving nothing behind but a furiously popping airlock.
Farting Thrush is a different story. There’s not as much gas being produced but the visuals are better, with large clumps of yeast mimicking the rise-and-fall performance of Summer Turbo’s individual yeast flakes from yesterday. I’m still seeing a good carpet of yeasty gunk on the surface, so maybe Thrush will prove to be more of a long-term performer, though it’s certainly spectacular now. Time will tell.
Still nothing happening on this brew, so I took the opportunity today to beef up the ring of hot melt glue securing the airlock grommet to the cap of the 5 litre bottle. Well what do you know? Must have been a slight leak there because the bubbling started pretty much straight away, even if it wasn’t as fast as that of Summer Turbo. Looks like we’re in business after all.
Not enough happening, hoping that a slight increase in temperature will get things going. Ambient temperature in office 19.1 ℃ (vessels measured at 20.4 ℃ with infrared thermometer) when I moved them at 21:45.
Right now the Thrush isn’t doing very much, there’s some very small static bubbles that look like they’re from fermentation stuck near the top, but generally the yeast has just expanded a little to form a weird carpet on top, with some chunks linked together and staying still, suspended in at various heights.
The Turbo is more exciting to look at, with a similar but slightly thinner carpet on top and individual yeast flakes continuously falling and rising for the whole height of the brew in some kind of bidirectional cascade. More bobbles on top also, with the airlock popping every 15 or 20 seconds.
Next Day
The vessels have come up to temperature and the infrared thermometer reads 21.6 ℃ while the ambient temperature is around 21.9 ℃. This doesn’t appear to have done much for the Thrush, which is still as static as yesterday, but the Turbo has gone up a notch and there’s a steady stream of bubbles audibly making its way to the surface. Airlock is popping every couple of seconds too.