Is it ready to bottle?

Hi!
I am new to this home brewing stuffs. I am from Australia <Sydney> and I am making the basic brewing kit I got from the shop.
It's 'Coopers homebrew' and the beer ingredient I got is 'Irish Ale'.
1.7kg Coopers draught
1kg Coopers brew enhancer 1
300 grams Golden syrup

It's been in the fermenter for more than 2 weeks now. first week it was bubbling alot but no bubbles on second week. The room temperature is about 18(Celsius).
Now the instruction says I should bottle it when it is near 1.012 gravity ,however I am getting about 1.016 and do not think it's going to go down anymore. So I was wondering if I should bottle it or keep it for 1 more week.
Can any beer gurus tell me what I should do ?
thanks in advance

You will have a hard time hitting your final gravity with an extract beer. If you've tested it multiple times a few days apart and the gravity hasn't changed from 1.016, then you can bottle. One extra week in the fermenter definately won't hurt though. I usually leave my beers in the fermenter for at least two weeks after they finish fermenting. Bigger beers I leave for a few months.

If you have to ask if it's ready, it's usually not.

Let it sit another week if there's any question. It may go down, it may not, but it only gets better left alone. (To a point, but that's another thread)

You could also try giving the carboy a little rock to rouse the yeast a bit.

Thanks for your quick reply~!
I will keep few more days or even 1 more week and see if it can get any better.
I was just worried that, beer might go bad ,if I leave it in the fermenter longer.
Cheers for the advice~!

The longer the better is usually the case. But if you're eager (which is MOST understandable) then in your FG doesn't change in 3 days or more, it should be done.

Enjoy!

Time is your friend. Many of us pitch our yeast and then come back and bottle in 3-4 weeks, skipping secondary altogether, and we think it improves our beer.

In Fact, Even John Palmer in How to brew mentions how it is good to wait a bit.

From How To Brew;

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.

Click to expand...

Even if the numbers say the beer is finished fermenting, it doesn't mean the yeast is done with their work.



So don't rush it...even though you are impatient. Your beer will thank you.

Thanks for the great help~!
I guess you guru's been there and done that.... you will get this anxious and eager feeling in first brewing (well it's my second time). I fail the first attempt and wanted to get it right second time. I hope all will be O.K~!
Cheers for help

Sounds like you're doing it right.

Welcome to HBT !
ask any questions - or search the forum -
we may jest, we may poke fun, but we'll try to steer you in the right direction.

Hi !It's been more than 2 weeks.
I've just measured the SG level and it is now 1018~! It used to be something like 1016...
It went up ? I am not sure what to do now... Any advice welcome...

Hmmm,,,, I left it alone for about 15~20 mins , now the reading gives me 1014..... what's going on??
The good thing is that it went down....

You're reading is off. There is no way it went up unless you added something to it. Are you taking your temps into concideration. Hydrometers only give off a correct reading at 60 degrees, so anything above that, you will have to convert to figure out the actual gravity. If your beer shifted temperatures between hydrometer readings, this could be why you're getting a different reading.

The readings can not go up, but you can easily get a false reading. Sometimes the sample is bubbly, and so when you add the hydrometer to the test jar, you want to "spin" the hydrometer and bounce it around gently to knock off any bubbles that may be holding it up.

Also, keep in mind to adjust your readings for temperature. Most hydrometers are calibrated for 60 degrees, so if your sample is 80 degrees, you'll need to adjust the reading. Most hydrometers have a slip of paper that you can use to look at the adjusted readings, but if yours doesn't you can just look it up online.

Yay~! I've bottled it about 3 weeks ago and I tried my second bottle today and it taste very much like a beer~! woohoo~! I opened my first bottle when it was about 14days and it tasted o.k, but you can feel it wasn't really ready.
I opened 1 today and it tastes like it's ready to drink. Thanks for all the replies and comments. Although the beer isn't prefect for my tasting. ( I generally like extra dry lagers)
I might choose something similar to 'extra dry lager' next time. Any suggestions would be great~!

P.S
Even tho I didn't really sterilized the bottles with 'starsan' and/or bleach, it tasted o.k.
What I did was only used 'bottle wash detergent' [alkaline salt] to wash and rinsed with tap water. My question is do I really need sterilize with bleach and/or 'starsan' ???

You need to sanitize, not sterilize. Very few people have the means to sterilize, plus it's not neccissary. I use idophor (sp?) solution to sanitize everything I brew with.

simonizmaster said:

P.S
Even tho I didn't really sterilized the bottles with 'starsan' and/or bleach, it tasted o.k.
What I did was only used 'bottle wash detergent' [alkaline salt] to wash and rinsed with tap water. My question is do I really need sterilize with bleach and/or 'starsan' ???

Click to expand...

Yup, anything that touches the beer post-boil needs to be sanitized (...as opposed to sterilized, which is different). That includes beer bottles.

The bottles are probably clean enough to keep the beer free of infection for a little while, but since you didn't sanitize them they might develop infections over time. Furthermore, it will be totally random..you drink a few that will be fine, and then the next one you open with gush all over the place and taste list s*it!

What you should do:
1. Sanitize your bottles next time! Why put all that work into keeping your beer free of infections throughout fermentation, just to put it into unsanitized bottles???
2. Put that batch in unsanitized bottles into the refrigerator....lower temps will inhibit bacterial growth.
3. Drink that batch quick!

Good luck! Cleanliness, Consistency, and Patience are keys to making good beer.