Okay to bottle after only two days of hydro readings?

Hey all, looks like my first post is going to be a quick question (unique, eh?)...

Working on my first 2.5 gallon batch (after 2 successful 1 gallon brews, both Brooklyn Brew Shop recipes), and it's been in the primary for two weeks as of today.

My question is just whether today's hydrometer reading (1.0149) along with one I'll take tomorrow will be enough to determine if it's safe to go ahead and bottle. I know the general consensus hovers around 3 days of steady readings, but I'd like to get this bottled to give as a gift at a party next weekend (with a note saying wait to open, of course).

A few details:

• It's a Belgian strong ale using Safbrew S-33, and I'll happily provide the recipe if it will help with answering (SWMBO is on my back to stop worrying and researching and just make a decision, so I'm trying to make this quick.)
  
• The beer in the fermenter is completely motionless, and the surface is just scattered with a few patches of tiny, non-foamy bubbles (see image below). It’s definitely not clear in the hydrometer tube, but I’m not sure whether it should be.
  
• With my past 1 gallon batches I didn’t have a hydrometer, so I just left it in primary for 2 weeks per the instructions, bottled in swing-tops, and had no issues.
  
• It tastes pretty good for the style at this point, but while I'm a skilled consumer, I'm a noob brewer, so I really have no point of reference.
  
• Due to AC troubles, the first couple days of fermentation were unfortunately around 80F, but the remainder was done in a swamp cooler keeping it around 74. That's the best I could do at the moment =/.

The current reading (1.0149) seems low enough compared to other similar threads, but I just thought I’d get a second opinion. Let me know if I can provide any other information, and thanks!

Bonus question: the recipe calls for 1 cup of honey for priming a 5 gallon batch, and so 0.5 cup for my half batch. Does this seem correct?

*Looks over shoulder to see if anyone is watching.... they are*

No. Steady readings is the only way to know and you can only have a steady reading if the readings are far enough... *the person watching passes by*

...yeah, after two weeks and that low you're probably okay and so a second reading 24 hrs later is probably okay. That's if you're a betting man. And you didn't hear it from me! But if the reading *isn't* the same tomorrow, forget it....

But you really should take them three days apart just to be 100% sure.

Um, what kind of hydrometer is accurate to *three* decimal places????

Honey is inconsistent as far as how fermentable it is. I would stick with dextrose, sucrose or dme.

Oh. Missed the honey question.

Read this thread. And use a priming calculator.

I'd do less.

I think it would be ok, in that you wouldn't get bottle bombs. But that sample doesn't look clear at all, so that means you'd get a ton of crud in the bottles and maybe, just maybe, it's not done fermenting quite completely.

I'd wait until a hydro sample was clear, or at least clearing, before packaging the beer.

If you are leaving a note to tell them to wait to open then I would give it another week and bottle the day before presentation as the yeast are still working to clean fermentation by products. It won't be properly carbed for a month anyway.

Thanks for all of the input, everyone. I did consider that the only reason I was trying to bottle sooner was impatience (would be nice to sample it on labor day, but oh well), and there's really no point in rushing it if I'm gonna tell him to wait to open it anyway. So thanks for being the voice of reason. I'll give it a few days and read again, and bottle next week if it's ready. Might as well start doing things the right way now (even if it's just partially) since this is obviously going to be an obsession.

woozy said:

Um, what kind of hydrometer is accurate to *three* decimal places????

Click to expand...

... the kind whose owner misses the part about rounding before adding the temperature compensation. Oops! So make that 1.015 (1.013 + .002).

I'll report back for posterity's sake. Thanks again!