First off I am new to home brewing, planning on brewing my first all-grain batch this weekend.
I have brewed 2 batches so far, both malt Better Brew extract kits, and both have been IPA's. My primary fermenter is a 6 gallon bucket with lid. During the primary on both batches I saw no activity in the airlock. Only thing were very small bubbles that appeared to be suspended in the water, nothing like I see on other peoples videos of airlock activity. I threw the first batch out, thinking it was due to operator error or bad ingredients. The second batch I pulled out after a week, bottled and it turned out pretty good. Yeast used in both was out of the kit, BRY-97 that was hydrated as instructed and then pitched into the wort.
My question is, is this common to have no airlock activity? Is there something wrong with the bucket or should I be doing the primary in a carboy rather than a bucket?
Thanks for the help, look forward to joining the homebrew community!
I have brewed 2 batches so far, both malt Better Brew extract kits, and both have been IPA's. My primary fermenter is a 6 gallon bucket with lid. During the primary on both batches I saw no activity in the airlock. Only thing were very small bubbles that appeared to be suspended in the water, nothing like I see on other peoples videos of airlock activity. I threw the first batch out, thinking it was due to operator error or bad ingredients. The second batch I pulled out after a week, bottled and it turned out pretty good. Yeast used in both was out of the kit, BRY-97 that was hydrated as instructed and then pitched into the wort.
My question is, is this common to have no airlock activity? Is there something wrong with the bucket or should I be doing the primary in a carboy rather than a bucket?
Thanks for the help, look forward to joining the homebrew community!