Hello, so I’m a first time brewer my wife got me one of the Northern Brewer starter kit with the block party amber ale recipe. I brewed a 5 gallon batch using this recipe on 18 Jan 2020, the next day around noon I check on it and I could see a nice thick layer of yeast through the bucket and the air lock was very active.
Today 20 Jan I checked on it and everything has stopped. it looks like the yeast has settled on the bottom and the air lock has stopped. The bucket still has a lot of pressure if I even lightly touch the lid or move the bucket the air lock bubbles like crazy and I think I have caught the odd bubble or two coming up even when not touching it. I have noticed a little bit of white residue around the base of the air lock on the lid.
I made sure to follow the instructions closely, the only issue I could see is maybe I didn’t cool the wort done enough before putting in the yeast. I’m keeping my bucket in a closet with an average temp between 68-72 F and the the bucket temp is currently 68.7. My bucket is not sitting directly on the ground, its actually sitting on top of another bucket and is not exposed to any light source.
what I’m wondering is if this activity is normal? or did something go wrong? and if there is anything I can do to fix this if something did go wrong?
It sounds like you will be fine. You had a vigorous fermentation and it is winding down now. Give it a FULL week or more to fully ferment (or even longer). Google temperature control/swamp cooler to improve your fermentation temperature control with future attempts. Most new brewers ferment a bit on the warm side(I did also) which leads to results such as yours…Relax, you will have beer, maybe good beer, but great beer will come with better temp control and practice. Good luck and welcome to the hobby!
Welcome to the obsession and our humble forums! As @voodoo_donut said, patience is a virtue, especially when starting out. I would say, to be safe, let this one sit in the bucket for two weeks after brewday. One thing I would recommend investing in is a hydrometer so that you can check your starting and final gravity for your beer. After about two weeks, pull a sample and put in a test tube to check your gravity. If you used US-05 for your yeast, that tends to finish around 1.012 for me. The one thing you don’t want to do is rush to get it into bottles before the yeasties have finished their jobs, because fermentation in bottles can lead to gushers or bottle bombs, neither of which you want. If you don’t have a hydrometer HERE is a nice basic kit with everything you need to check gravity.
Feel free to ask any questions, no matter how foolish you may think them, we all started out with questions at one time and there are a lot of very helpful people on here with a lot of experience. Good luck on your first brew!
I do have a hydrometer my kit came with one, I just forgot to use on brew day. I’m not sure what yeast I used since I just used all the stuff in the kit. If I did want to test with the hydrometer around the two week mark, what is the best way to pull out a sample for testing?
It happens to us all forget things. Best thing. Create a brewing journal. Take notes. Write your recipy. In there. So you can look back. And see in this case what kind of yeast. And original gravity. Welcome to the fun hobby
Yes, welcome to brewing! An insane trip down unknown rabbit holes of often told rich rewards of heavenly brews!!
Alright, feet back on the ground…
In your 5gallon bucket, quietly place your well sanitized hydrometer… Hands sanitized too, right? As best you can read where the new brew and those itty bitty lines/numbers meet… Record that… Leave the hydrometer in there… Cover up the brew… Being quiet… Oxygen is not a friend of your brew!!!
Look at the hydrometer in roughly 3 plus days and record your findings… If it’s different… It’s still fermenting …
Sneezles61
To pull a sample you would need a thief and a tube to put the sample in for the reading. The kit I linked previously has all three items in it. Or you can do as @sneezles61 suggested and put it directly in your bucket with proper sanitation.
Listen to these guys and order another kit in the mean time. Welcome to the obsession we call home brewing @RPW. We all had the exact same questions you do so don’t be afraid to ask. The members on here are great and super knowledgeable with all types of brewing back rounds.
I assume you brewed an extract kit. So, if you topped off to 5-ish gallons, you can just use the OG from the instructions. I’ve been brewing for a few years and about once per year I forget to take the OG or FG reading or forget the flameout hops. Every one of those still wound up as good beer!
Awesome, Thanks everyone for you help. The hydrometer I have came with a test tube to put sample in, in fact the link radagast posted is the what I have minus the thief, so I will definitely be ordering a thief to make pulling samples easier. I did use an extract recipe, the block party amber which seem to be a good starting brew from what I’ve read in some other topics on this forum. I must say I did have a blast brewing it up and cannot wait to try the final product, its definitely going to be a long month.
My first thought was to use a turkey baster, I ended just ordering a thief so that its easier to keep separate from other kitchen accessories for sanitation/cleanliness purposes.
As 
