fermentation

My black ipa has been fermenting since last Sunday, go blue! The bubbling in the ferment lock slowed to about 35 seconds. I want to dry hop it today and measure the FG, should I wait until it slows down a little more before I measure? Anyone think its gonna make that much of a difference in specific gravity or should I wait until the bubbling completely stops?

Beer!

audihonda said:

My black ipa has been fermenting since last Sunday, go blue! The bubbling in the ferment lock slowed to about 35 seconds. I want to dry hop it today and measure the FG, should I wait until it slows down a little more before I measure? Anyone think its gonna make that much of a difference in specific gravity or should I wait until the bubbling completely stops?

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yo

The right answer is leave it alone until the bubbling is stopped and then take a gravity reading. Then figure when you will be bottling, and add the hops at the desired time before bottling.

But, we can never keep our hands off it.

You can take a gravity reading anytime you want. If it were me, I'd go do that now, and drink the sample from the hydrometer jar. Knowing how far it has attenuated and what it tastes like, will tell you a huge amount about the beer, that we could only speculate about. That should put you in a better position to figure what you want to do next and when.

You won't have a FG reading until the bubbling has stopped, so it will be difficult to predict when fermentation is complete.

Upon making my last IPA, I dry hopped on day 10, which was about 2 days after the airlock stopped bubbling.

Just remember, the more attempts you make at "accessing" the beer, the more your risk of contamination increases.