Slow fermentation

Hey everyone. I have my first batch fermenting now. I had an initial gravity of1.041. After 8 days in the primary bubbleing was about 1/30seconds so I racked to a secondary. The racking was a bit toublesome with the autosiphon. It was a bit slow and stopped at one point so I ended up using it as a hand pump for about 1/3 of a gallon before I could get it started again. It never seemed to bubble much in the secondary and 5 days into it I counted one small bubble in mayby 10 minutes.
The gravity is 1.18 and hasnt changed much if at all in the last 5 days. Can I still bottle in aboout a week (after two weeks in the secondary). A 1.18 gravity seems awefully high and a good recipie for a bottle bomb.
Thanks for any advice.

density 1.018 you mean...

could you give more info about the recipe. 1.018 sounds a bit high but I wonder what extract you used and what grains. Is it possible that you have a lot of unfermentables?

anyways if after 2 weeks the density has not changed, I would bottle.

That is really high for a SG of 1.041. I would repitch with a packet of dried yeast. Maybe raise the temperature a few degrees as well.

I was going to ask about the temp also. See if you can raise the temp to 70F or so. Place the fermenter near your water heater if you need a heat source.

Oh wow ok. I was really trying to keep the temp down. When I checked this morning it was at 66 F. The yeast is white labs' dusseldorf alt yeast which has an attenuation of 65-72 and an optimum fermentation of 65-69.

It looks like you are in the right temp range. (Higher temps ferment faster, cooler temp slower...just like molasses). Perhaps you are just being impatient? It's the curse of the new brewer.

One way to overcome that is to brew 3 or 4 batches and allow them the time to ferment out. Depending on what styles you brew batch #4 can be done before #2.

I have 5 brews going right now. I can bottle two of them today if I get around to it.

Cool, I dont mind waiting I just dont want bottle bombs. How long do you usually have it in the secondary before bottling?