My First beer at 15 days post brew.

I am brewing a porter with this recipe. It has been fermenting 15 days at about 68 degrees. It has dropped from 1.044 to 1.022. The airlock hasn't bubbled since the second day, but when I was watching the beer just now, there were bubbles steadily rising in the bucket. There was an oily film on the surface. I plan on taking another reading on Sunday to see if it has dropped any more because I would like to have it in the bottle by the 24th at the latest.
Here is a picture:


Does everything seem to be going okay?

Looks like beer!

How often do you take the lid off to look at it? It's working, leave it alone.

Keep it covered up, it looks fine! Opening it up is more likely to cause issues than leaving it alone. Pandora's Box and all that jazz.

Today was the first time I had opened it up since brew day. I opened it up to get a hydrometer sample. Is there a way to get a sample without opening it?

Yup! There are buckets with a spigot near the bottom. If your bucket doesn't have one I would suggest getting one. Some brew shops can modify your current bucket. The spigot allows for sampling as well as easier transfer to a bottling bucket or secondary without risk of oxidation.

I don't recommend fermenting in a bucket with a spigot, just wait until it starts to leak a day or so in to your primary.

Tall_Yotie said:

Yup! There are buckets with a spigot near the bottom. If your bucket doesn't have one I would suggest getting one. Some brew shops can modify your current bucket. The spigot allows for sampling as well as easier transfer to a bottling bucket or secondary without risk of oxidation.

Click to expand...

That seems to be generally thought of as a bad idea. The spigot can be hard to clean - which could mean a higher chance of infection. They are also cheap, so they can start to leak. A small leak might be fine for the 20 minutes of bottling, but it'd be a problem if it's sitting for a week+.

The chances of oxidation by opening the bucket is extremely tiny. There's a nice layer of CO2 there. Your biggest risk is something falling into the beer, and causing an infection, which is still unlikely.

I was referring to oxidation when racking or pouring into another vessel. I don't care for siphoning and enjoy the easy access of the spigot. Keeps me from fighting the lid to get it off as well.

Not going to turn this into a thread of spigot or no spigot, but my 2 cents; I have always used a bucket with spigot, and never had an issue. Yes, cleaning can be a pain, and it takes a bit of effort to reattach the spigot so it doesn't leak, but I haven't had an infection or a leak for a brew yet.

I was unaware that this was a hot topic, as buckets with spigots is all I have ever seen IRL.

I have one of each. I had never considered brewing in the spigot bucket

In any case - moving off the Bucket discussion - beers do better when left alone - if you want to bottle it by the 24th, then leave it until the 22nd - then check the gravity. If it's low, you're fine.

When I put this in BeerSmith, I get 1.054 as approximate starting gravity, with 1.017 as final - But the recipe makes no mention of yeast type - and different strains yield different results.

what yeast did you use? Temp?

anyway, if you're near 1.017 (1.022 isn't too far off, as your LME may have some percentage of unfermentables) on the 22nd, you're good to bottle.

At least three weeks at 70F in the bottle, and voila - Beer! However, porters do a little better with some age. Consider 2 months in the bottle, or more, if you can stand it!