3 Gallon Oatmeal Stout, When to Bottle?

Hey all, I am very new to this site and hope I can get some help with knowing when to bottle with this batch. I have been brewing for a few months and normally do 5 gallon batches but when I found a smaller Carboy in my parents house I decided to use that also and this is my first 3 gallon batch.

The fermentation did not seem as wild as anything I have done in a 5 gallon batch, the airlock was active less than 12 hours after pitching the yeast and only really stayed active for a little over a day. It has now been sitting for a week at a constant 70-72 degrees and all foam has settled. I was planning on bottling soon and assumed a 3 gallon would need less time than a 5 gallon, but took a hydrometer reading of 1.030 last night which does not seem like very much change from the reading of 1.058 taken just before pitching the yeast.

This batch is not going to be racked to secondary but I was hoping to empty the carboy it is in to use as a secondary for a different batch, should I just keep taking hydrometer readings and looking for a change over a few days? If there is no change can I just bottle? Is it possible that I had a bad batch of yeast or somehow screwed up pitching it? The recipe I followed claimed an initial reading of 1.054 and a final of 1.012.

That SG is way too high to bottle. What was the recipe, and the yeast used? (You might have a ton of unfermentables in there, but that SG is still awfully high). If it was a very flocculant yeast, you can try to gently swirl the fermenter to see if you can get it going again.

I'd consider repitching some fresh dry yeast in there, to see if you can restart fermentation so it'll finish up. Do NOT bottle that- you'll have bottle bombs.

Edit- and welcome to HBT!

Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah I was a little upset about the high SG and didn't even think of bottles bursting, but that makes sense. I might take a little trip by the homebrew supply store today and pick up new yeast. Its a bummer though because that just means more time between now and when I can drink it... Oh well, there is a 5 gallon batch of red ale next to it that is doin great.

How does adding too much yeast affect a brew, i.e. if I already added, it already fermented a little (SG dropping from 1.058 to 1.030) and I add some more (I use dry yeast packets) will it just mean I have a lot of sediment in my bottles or is there another result from that as well?

EDIT: SG today = 1.022, must still be fermenting with not airlock activity, this could probably be due to a lot of headspace fermenting a 3 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy? I am going to hold back on the yeast

I don't know why you're not seeing visible signs of fermentation, but as long as it's fermenting, that's OK!

When the sg is stable for at least 3 days, then you can bottle it.

you might have some gas escaping through a seal. as long as your sg is dropping your in good shape. wait a couple days and take another reading.

so it is still at 1.022 and temp has been constant at about 70 so could it just be that there were a lot of unfermentables?

Grain Bill:
8 oz Flaked Oats
8 oz Chocolate
5 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Wheat
8 oz 6 Row

Extract:
3.88# Amber Malt Extract (3 gallon batch)

Hopping Schedule:
Bullion (.5 oz) 60 min
Styrian Golding (.5 oz) 30 min
Styrian Golding (.5 oz.) 5 min

After the boil a pot of freshly brewed coffee was added to the wort

It's not that there could be a lot of unfermentables...there are! Unless you mashed those grains, they're going to contribute a lot of sugar and starches to your wort that will not ferment.