Ready to bottle?

Hi All,

I'm making my first batch from a kit (Muntons Gold Old English Bitter). It's been fermenting 12 days now and in the last couple of days the beer has cleared nicely and the bubbling has slowed to a small bubble every minute or so; the o.g. has dropped to 1.015.

Is it OK to bottle up now or should I wait until the bubbles have stopped completely? The kit says to bottle when o.g. is stable under 1.014 but it also says to ferment for only 7-8 days.

What do the experienced brewers say...?

Wait till next weekend and check the gravity. You can't really go by how many days it says to wait, go by the gravity reading. If your fermenting colder than what the directions say it'll take longer, sometimes a LOT longer. Patience grasshopper.

You lose nothing by waiting. I would leave it as well if you have any doubts. Just as an 'fyi' if you know what strain of yeast you use, you can look up your attenuation. Then you can find out how much your wort has attenuated by doing this:

(OG-FG)/OG

So say your beer was 1.045 and finished out at 1.014. This is:

(45-14)/45 = .6888 or in percentage = 68.8%. Most yeast strains seem to at least hit 70%, but it does depend mainly on the strain and how much fermentables are available to your yeast. That will give you another rough clue to how you are doing. It is also very helpful at determining if you encounter a stuck ferment.

Also keep in mind, your Hydrometer reading is temperature dependent and can be actually smaller or larger than what you read. And that in itself (reading the Hydrometer) you can have a point error just by how you read it.

Every minute or so (in theory) should be safe to bottle, however the only way to really tell, as the guys have said, is to use your darn hydrometer. Check it 2-3 days and wait for the gravity to stop moving for at least a 24-36 hour period. If it's still going down every day, let it sit another few days.

I did my first brew with a Munton's Gold kit and it sucked. I followed the directions to the letter, and not having a hydrometer for my first batch, just bottled when the box said to. Well, now I still have a case of too sweet potential bottle bombs in the back of my closet where they have been for a while, and will continue to sit for some time to come, hopefully may mellow with age.