should i bottle?

hey still new to this site and kinda new to all grain. my second AG batch has been fermenting for 8 days today the OG was 1.053 and yesterday i took a reading and it said 1.012. i used wyeast 3638 for my dunkeled hefe and it is a 2.13 gallon batch. should i wait till the weekend and bottle or bottle today? thanks

I'd wait a couple more weeks to let the beer clean up the byproducts of fermentation. Just because it's done fermenting, doesn't mean the yeast is done doing it's job. They are very fastidious creatures who like to finish the job if we don't rush the process. That's why many of us leave our beers in primary for a month.

Even John Palmer advocates waiting;

How To Brew said:

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.

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It's no different than our non kit recipes, a beer is a beer, and as you might have read, many of us subscribe to the idea of not rushing our beers off the yeast for at least 3-4 weeks, and find out beers greately improved by doing so. It allows the yeast to clean up any byproducts they created during fermentation, which if rushed away from this process too soon, may lead to off flavors.

hey thanks Revvy i guess i just get alittle antsy when i got beer fermenting and the beer in the fridge is gettin low.

loganb said:

hey thanks Revvy i guess i just get alittle antsy when i got beer fermenting and the beer in the fridge is gettin low.

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I'm a firm believer in not sacrificing quality just because my quantity is low.

When my pipeline is low, I go and buy different beers, preferably from places that do mixed 6'ers of craft beer. That way I can explore different versions of a favorite style and to stretch my beervocbulary by trying new ones. That way it give me more ideas for future brews.

i agree i was thinking about stoppin by the class 6 this weekend on post and gettin a few differnt beers. they carry a good bit of different beers from all over. and my wife helps out with my lack of patience. she likes wheat beer and told me if i mess it up she will kick me in the nuts!

Definitely let it mellow for a while longer. 1.012 is low, but like Revvy said the yeast is probably not done working it's magic.

I usually bottle at 2 weeks for my wheat beers, mainly because I think they don't really condition much after a certain point. It is a beer that is best drunk young. 2 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottles and it should be ready to drink. IT won't go bad necessarily if you let it sit longer, but it doesn't improve with age as much as other beers. IMHO YMMV.

I usually go 1 week in primary and 2 weeks for secondary plus another week just because. But since I don't usually use a secondary, that ends up being 3-4 weeks in the primary.

By then most beers are fairly well conditioned and pretty clear. Another month in the bottle/keg at room temp doesn't usually hurt either, if you can do it.

awsome thank you for all the info. and look forward to alot more questions from me. and thanks again