I'm assuming the answer to this question is YES and RDWHAHB, but...

I took a hydrometer reading on a high-ish (1.078) OG beer that has had a very vigorous fermentation. It's been 9 days since pitching. SG was 1.029 today, still very high I feel like for 9 days later. The beers I've made so far seem to hit their target FG in 3-7 days max.

The good news is that the yeast still seem very active, there's a lot of airlock bubbling and I can still see them swirling around in the beer when I look closely, so I'm not really concerned that fermentation is stuck.

Anyway long story short would you consider this long of a primary fermentation normal for a 1.078 OG beer? I pitched two vials of WL001 to this beer as I'm still too new and too lazy to make a starter.

on edit: I did have blow off on this one and there was yeast sediment in the collection container, I wonder if this could have slowed down fermentation?

I wouldn't worry about where you're at now. Without the recipe it is kind of a stab in the dark, but WLP001's attenuation from WL site is 73-80% and you're only at about 63%. I usually just start fermentation and let it sit for 2-3 weeks and let the yeast do their job. What kind of beer did you make, and what is the recipe?

1.078 is a big beer. It's going to take a while for the yeasties to do their thing. Patience, Grasshopper.

damdaman said:

The good news is that the yeast still seem very active, there's a lot of airlock bubbling

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So it's still working hard. Classic RDWHAHB.

Beer is done when beer is done. Perhaps when I get my own brewery and carefully controlled temperatures and environment, I'll be able to predict when my beer is ready. But for now, I just wait about a week after all the bubbling stops then pull out the hydrometer. Bigger beers take longer on average, but the yeast, recipe, temperature, and a million other factors play in as well.

Thanks for the reassurances. I'm happy to let it sit the prescribed 3 weeks, I guess I just still have newbie worries and anything that varies from my limited experience sets me off.

Um, with a beer that big, you will probably need to let it sit for more than three weeks. It could be more like 6.

Thanks. I took a reading again today, SG has dropped to 1.023, so still dropping, this is good. Target FG was about 1.017 so I'm creeping close.

I'm just going to have to be more patient on this one.

Birchgrove77 said:

I wouldn't worry about where you're at now. Without the recipe it is kind of a stab in the dark, but WLP001's attenuation from WL site is 73-80% and you're only at about 63%. I usually just start fermentation and let it sit for 2-3 weeks and let the yeast do their job. What kind of beer did you make, and what is the recipe?

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It's a "Cascadian Dark Ale" (black IPA)... I basically just modified an IPA recipe I was planning to make to incorporate some dark malts.

Here's the recipe:

7.5 lbs light DME (3 lbs. at start of boil, 4.5 at end)
12oz. victory
12oz. crystal 60L
6oz carafa II
6oz chocolate

2oz centennial 60
1oz centennial 30
1oz centennial 20
1.5oz cascade 15
1oz cascade flameout
1oz willamette flameout
1oz cascade dry
1oz willamette dry

Pitched 2 vials WL001 California Ale
OG: 1.077
Est. FG: 1.017
ABV: 7.8%
Color: 27 SRM
74 IBU
(SRM and IBU calculations by recipator)

damdaman said:

It's a "Cascadian Dark Ale" (black IPA)... I basically just modified an IPA recipe I was planning to make to incorporate some dark malts.

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Thanks for posting. I've never had a black IPA, but have heard good things (I think Stone did a black IPA last year) and would like to do one myself. I ordered Willamette and Bullion hops a while back and heard that Bullion does well in stouts....I wonder how it might pair with this recipe if I subbed it for Centennial.

Birchgrove77 said:

Thanks for posting. I've never had a black IPA, but have heard good things (I think Stone did a black IPA last year) and would like to do one myself. I ordered Willamette and Bullion hops a while back and heard that Bullion does well in stouts....I wonder how it might pair with this recipe if I subbed it for Centennial.

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I don't have any experience with that hop so I'm not sure. But I can tell you the hydrometer samples I've tasted have been fantastic, so I have high hopes for this recipe.