Bottling Day

I am about to bottle my first ever batch of beer. I chose a English Brown Ale to start with and I just went into get the primary fermenter and before I touched it, it bubbled. It has not bubbled in front of me for a few days and I was now wondering if this is normal or is the beer not finished fermenting. I made started the batch last Monday.

Should the bubbling totally stop, or is it ok to have it still bubble 7 days later? Should I bottle it or wait?

Don't use bubbles to tell you when it's done. Take a gravity reading and another in 3 days and if they are the same (or very close) it should be done.

Just let it sit for 2-3 weeks, check the gravity a couple of days apart and then bottle if it is stable.

Yes... 2-3 weeks should be good and the telling point is your specific gravity. I have seen slow bubbling at 3 weeks even though fermentation is finished as verified by a SG reading.

Im tellin' ya, those buckets know when you are coming. I just bottled a beer that was in primary for 41 days - I haven't seen a bubble in 3 weeks - and as I walked up to it before bottling, it bubbled! LOL. Floor vibration or something. Like the posters above said, either take a couple consecutive readings or just let it sit for a while to be sure.

I know bubbles don't indicate if fermentation is done but i am on day 8 of an American light and it is bubbling at a steady rate still, 50 seconds between belches consistently (timed with a stopwatch) so it looks like activity and i plan on waiting till the end of the week before measuring gravity.

Is there a reason why the instructions to the kit say that after 7 days it is ready to bottle but doesn't say anything about taking multiple readings? Most people are saying to watch the FG and when it stabilizes it is the ready but the instructions do not mention that. Kind of misleading to the newbie brewer.
I took a reading this evening and will let it sit a few ore the take another reading.
Thanks to everyone for all your advice. I will be using this forum for all my future advice.

The kit people want you to buy more kits, so faster turn around is good for their business.
We just want to make good beer.

There are some pretty bad instructions out there and bottling after just 1 week is some of the worst. There are even a few people on here who give really bad advice on occasion. I usually try to verify everything from a few different sources unless I have good reason to be confident in their advice.

You would think the kit suppliers would be more concerned about liability if someone may be injured from an exploding bottle because they told you to bottle it while it was still fermenting.

Some beers really are "done" in a week. If it is a low gravity beer, and you aerate well, and pitch the proper amount of active yeast, and keep a proper temp..... it "could" be ready. Of course, most new brewers aren't going to do everything perfectly and their beer probably won't be done in a week or even 2. The more mistakes you make up front, the longer it takes for the yeast to try to clean up those off flavors.

Of course, if you made a high gravity brew, there is about zero chance it will be finished in a week.

Can anyone suggest some "must have" reading material for the beginning brewer? Again, I appreciate all the advice. I am very glad I found this forum.

http://www.howtobrew.com/
First edition is free online. Recommend buying third edition in print as some things have been updated.

dkeller12 said:

Can anyone suggest some "must have" reading material for the beginning brewer? Again, I appreciate all the advice. I am very glad I found this forum.

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jonny_crash said:

http://www.howtobrew.com/
First edition is free online.

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I disagree. There is a lot in that first edition that does not give good advise.

jonny_crash said:

Recommend buying third edition in print...

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This I agree with.

dkeller12 said:

Is there a reason why the instructions to the kit say that after 7 days it is ready to bottle but doesn't say anything about taking multiple readings? Most people are saying to watch the FG and when it stabilizes it is the ready but the instructions do not mention that. Kind of misleading to the newbie brewer.
I took a reading this evening and will let it sit a few ore the take another reading.
Thanks to everyone for all your advice. I will be using this forum for all my future advice.

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I wish all brew kit instructions read like this:

Step 1: Throw these instructions away or burn them. Move to step 2. (hint: preread step 2 prior to igniting the instructions)
Step 2: Find some better instructions for brewing beer: a book (how to brew), a forum (homebrewtalk.com), friends, the interwebz, etc.

Did ya read this? https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

dkeller12 said:

Can anyone suggest some "must have" reading material for the beginning brewer? Again, I appreciate all the advice. I am very glad I found this forum.

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The Joy Of HomeBrewing by Charles Papazian is a must IMO, but also How to brew by John Palmer, both are excellent reads and you will learn a lot from them.

Salud!

J187 said:

I wish all brew kit instructions read like this:

Step 1: Throw these instructions away or burn them. Move to step 2. (hint: preread step 2 prior to igniting the instructions)
Step 2: Find some better instructions for brewing beer: a book (how to brew), a forum (homebrewtalk.com), friends, the interwebz, etc.

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I don't agree. I have done 15+ of the Brewer's Best kits and the instructions have let me make good to great beers with all of them. Now, some others might not be good, but I have told people that I've gotten into doing the extracts to read and read again and then read once more the instructions before starting their first batch.

Very easy to follow and if followed correctly there is little room for error.

Hackwood said:

I don't agree. I have done 15+ of the Brewer's Best kits and the instructions have let me make good to great beers with all of them. Now, some others might not be good, but I have told people that I've gotten into doing the extracts to read and read again and then read once more the instructions before starting their first batch.

Very easy to follow and if followed correctly there is little room for error.

Click to expand...

Regardless of whether or not they allow for good beer to be made, they are not nearly as good or as comprehensive as the information that can and should be sought out from books, websites, forums, etc.