Not sure if beer fermented.

This is my first time making a five gallon kit. I forgot to take an original gravity reading, and there was no activity in my airlock and no visible krausen. When I checked my gravity, a couple of days later, I did get a gravity reading that is supposed to be near the final gravity. My question is, how can I tell for sure that the beer is fermented? Should I taste it? Will adding extra yeast just to be sure hurt it, or change the taste? This is brewed from malt extract, and I used re-hydrated dry yeast if that helps.

Of your hydrometer says its near FG, it's fermented.

One qualification: Did you take an original gravity reading for comparison?

Check your gravity again after 3 days from the first time you checked it. If it hasn't gone down it's done.

Normally kits have an expected OG and FG. If you followed the kit instructions accurately and are near the FG, then the beer is most likely done. However, just to be sure it's good practice to give the beer at least 3 weeks in the fermenter so that the yeast have time to fully attenuate and clean up byproducts.

If your gravity is near where the final was supposed to be it is likely done. Does it smell like beer, or like a sweet barley syrup? Sanitize a spoon and take a taste--I taste my beers at all stages. As long as you don't use an unsanitized spoon or spit the sample back in the fermenter it won't hurt anything. As for no bubbles or visible Kraeusen, there are plenty of threads on here discussing those things. Everyone has had a batch they swear didn't do anything. The only way to know if you had fermentation is to find out what is in the bucket. For this you can sample--as you've done--taste and smell.

JonM said:

One qualification: Did you take an original gravity reading for comparison?

Click to expand...

Read the first sentence in the OP

BansheeRider said:

Read the first sentence in the OP

Click to expand...

Whoops! Long day.

Assuming this was an extract kit, and assuming your final volume is close to accurate, then your OG is going to pretty much be on target with the expected OG from the recipe...so, you more or less know what your OG is even if you didn't get a measurement.

What is the gravity now?