Caribou slobber small batch kit. is this normal?

I just bought the small batch starter kit and prepared the caribou slobber 1 gal. Extract kit. After about 6 hours or so there was a thick ring if foam in the fermenter and after like 20 hours I replaced the airlock with a blowoff. Then after 2 days everything is very quiet no foam on top and what looks like a layer if sand covered by a white layer on the bottom and like one bubble every 4-5 minutes from the blowoff now on day 5 of fermentation.

Please tell me if this is normal. How can I tell when fermentation is done. I do not have a hydrometer.

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A) All looks and sounds fine.
B) Get a hydrometer. It’s the only way to truly know if the beer is done fermenting.

[quote=“excelon2001”]I just bought the small batch starter kit and prepared the caribou slobber 1 gal. Extract kit. After about 6 hours or so there was a thick ring if foam in the fermenter and after like 20 hours I replaced the airlock with a blowoff. Then after 2 days everything is very quiet no foam on top and what looks like a layer if sand covered by a white layer on the bottom and like one bubble every 4-5 minutes from the blowoff now on day 5 of fermentation.

Please tell me if this is normal. How can I tell when fermentation is done. I do not have a hydrometer.[/quote]

Your Caribou Slobber kit is acting exactly like mine did. Like dobe12 says, the only way to know for sure if fermentation is done is with a hydrometer. The problem is, with a 1 gallon batch, pulling a sample for a reading takes a noticeable bite out of the batch. :expressionless: As a noob brewer, I just let mine sit for about 2 1/2 weeks after the bubbling stopped before bottling, and it worked out pretty well other than being a little flat, which I attribute to not conditioning long enough. For what it’s worth, the first thing I learned in this hobby is that patience is a virtue. Don’t hurry the process, and you’ll thank yourself in the end. Good luck.

It all looks normal to me. This is what I see with my batches:

~Primary fermentation kicks off 24-48 hours after pitching the yeast. (If it has not started, check temperature. If temp is good for the yeast you are using, it is likely dead and pitch with new yeast.)
~This stage will ramp up and then settle down. I usually expect this to take 1 week for all the bubbles to fall back into the batch. This is also the risk point of the foam clogging your bung. After the first week, you should be in the clear.
~If you use a secondary vessel, you transfer it at this time to condition for a while (2-4 weeks depending up type of beer and level of patience).
~All in all, you should be waiting 2 weeks at a bare minimum before bottling, and I would recommend longer.

If you bottle too soon, the beer will not be very alcoholic since the yeast would not have time to break down all of the sugars. It will also taste different since you have more sugars and yeast bodies floating around. (It will still be drinkable.)

So the sludge at the bottom: everything you added in the wort (hops, grain residue, some complex sugars, etc.) settles to the bottom. The layer of white is likely the dead (and some active) yeast bodies, but don’t worry they reproduce in your beer so you won’t run out. When you transfer/bottle, make sure you don’t put that in the beer you drink.

Hope this helps.

[quote=“ATree87”]
~Primary fermentation kicks off 24-48 hours after pitching the yeast. (If it has not started, check temperature. If temp is good for the yeast you are using, it is likely dead and pitch with new yeast.)
~This stage will ramp up and then settle down. I usually expect this to take 1 week for all the bubbles to fall back into the batch. This is also the risk point of the foam clogging your bung. After the first week, you should be in the clear.
~If you use a secondary vessel, you transfer it at this time to condition for a while (2-4 weeks depending up type of beer and level of patience).
~All in all, you should be waiting 2 weeks at a bare minimum before bottling, and I would recommend longer.[/quote]

Thanks for all the info. Mine started foaming up after like 8 hours and it was either after 24 or 48 everything seemed to have stopped already. I am now planning to bottle after either 16 or 19 days as I am leaving town between the 13-15 days point. Hopefully its still doing its thing. Is there any way all the yeast died?

Depending on what temperature it’s at everything sounds normal. Congrats!