Belgian Ale Update

Have been concerned about the fermentation on the Belgian Ale as have only had minimal bubbles in the airlock, not the large foaming,blow-off like others do on the message boards that I have read. Airlock has mostly looked like this (not my image, similar one I found online).

Talked to Dave about it over the past two nights, and determined it could be due to yeast and not using a starter, so Friday evening determined I would pitch more yeast today.  However, I did not make it to the brew supply store as planned, and altered plan to checking the gravity tonite to see what activity if any had occurred.  Was pleasantly surprised when I removed lid and saw a great deal of "yeast foam" and it appeared fermentation was happening in earnest.

Quick call back to Dave, more discussion seemed to identify a very likely answer to the question of why so little airlock activity --- the lid is likely to be not airtight.  Thinking back to first batch while notching the lid I did notch too far in one place nearly up to the brim - after looking into it tonight it does appear that we do have some escape there -- fortunately, yeast is working -- unfortunately, notch could allow "undesirables" in as well - so time permitting will be hitting the store tomorrow for new lid.  While there I will also pick up the ingredients for the next batch --- a robust porter.

Now need to finalize the "winter/holiday flavorings" that I'm going to add to the Belgian as we will also be buying those at the grocery tomorrow in anticipation of moving the Belgian to secondary mid to late next week.

Brewing note:  Did take a gravity reading removing about a cup of wort tonite --- gravity is now at 1.050.
Tastes pretty good - much better than the brown ale did after a couple of fermenting days, heavy already!