Hitting FG

I know patience is a virtue in beer brewing but its been 13 days and my FG is 1.026. The kit says i need 1.019. Seems kinda high for almost 2 weeks fermenting. I was unable to obtain a OG because i broke my hydrometer in sanitizing bucket.
The temp control on the fridge is set at 68 with 4 degree variation. Its a williams red ale and i used a wyeast yeast that i mixed in a 400 ml starter for 24 hrs prior to pitching. The sample i took tasted wonderful though. so should i take a few more samples next couple days and if no change go to secondary or wait another week to see if any drop ? Also i've been using the spigot to take the samples. I pointed the BB spigot up to collect from center of bottle. Also included some pics of my setup critiques welcome.

Pull the fermentor out of the fridge, swirl it to kick up the yeast and let it warm up a little. Maybe the +/- 4F got down a little too cold for the yeast and the went to sleep.

How warm should i let it get? should i just bump up the temp on the fridge and slowly warm it up. Room temp is 75-78 degrees.

Is it the fermenter on the right (carboy) you are talking about? Is it a 5 gallon carboy? If so, you look like you are pretty short.

Its a 6 gal, carboy. Yeah its a little short, I didn't even think about marking lines on the bottle until i started filling it with wort. Doh! so i guesstimated.

I found this a couple days later. 5 gallon mark on a 6 gallon Better Bottle. - HomeBrewTalk Gallery posted by SavageSteve Lol wish i would have found it earlier. By looking at that picture i'd say i'm about 1/2 gal. short. Think that will impact it much?

I would let it come up to the upper cut off for the yeast's temp range outside the fridge, give it a swirl again, and put it back in and see how it does. Maybe bump the temp a little in the fridge for the rest of the time. Can you adjust the temp variation cut offs on your controller?

Doing napkin math, guessing expected attenuation, etc., etc., I figure that your OG should have been around 1.067, give or take. Using a half-gallon less with the same amount of extract would put your OG around 1.074. With the same attenuation, your FG would be approximately 1.021. You're still fairly shy -- I concur with Gremlyn, I'd agitate a little and warm it a bit, and give it some more time.

Gremlyn1 said:

I would let it come up to the upper cut off for the yeast's temp range outside the fridge, give it a swirl again, and put it back in and see how it does. Maybe bump the temp a little in the fridge for the rest of the time. Can you adjust the temp variation cut offs on your controller?

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I believe so. Not sure how. here is the fridge temp control i have. I just got it and i know how to set temp. i can set a variation of like +/- a few degrees. but I don't know how to specifically set high and low values.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/johnson-controls-a419-digital-temp-controller.html

LordHedgie said:

Doing napkin math, guessing expected attenuation, etc., etc., I figure that your OG should have been around 1.067, give or take. Using a half-gallon less with the same amount of extract would put your OG around 1.074. With the same attenuation, your FG would be approximately 1.021. You're still fairly shy -- I concur with Gremlyn, I'd agitate a little and warm it a bit, and give it some more time.

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I need to learn the math aspect of brewing. I didn't even realize how much of a difference 1/2 gallon would make. It still tasted pretty yummy so hopefully it should still come out good.

I would just take it out and let it sit at room temp for a week. It's not that high and no esters will be produced at this late date. You can then go out and get another 6 gal BB and start your next brew.

With an OG of 1.067 or higher, 2 weeks is probably not long enough time to reach FG. I would take another reading in 5 days.

pulled it out, gave it a stir, and let it sit at room temp for about 3 days. I take a gravity reading this morning and its still at 1.026. didn't budge a bit. i'm kinda wanting to use the BB its in to brew another one. think it would be fine to transfer to a secondary yet? or is the FG still to high. supposed to reach 1.019, but i was about 1/2 gal short on water.

As I said before, I don't think you're likely to pass 1.021, and wouldn't be surprised if it stops around 1.023. 1.026 is still a bit high -- ideally I'd leave it another week or two, but if you want the bucket to brew another batch, I doubt you can hurt it much by racking to secondary. I'd be more nervous about bottling.

Worst that can happen is your beer ends up a tad sweet.