When bubbling stops is it ready?

Newbie Question here and sorry if it's been asked before, I could not find it.

During Fermentation when your brew stops bubbling can you then bottle/Keg it? I have been told for your standard ales to always let it go at least 14 days regardless. I recently spoke to a Breckenridge Brewmaster who said as long as it's bubbling let it go to maximize quality.

what if it stops bubbling early though? can I bottle early?

In addition, I have been told to let Gluten Free beer Ferment for only 1 week and conditon for 3 weeks....Any truth in that?

Only one way to know if your beer is ready to bottle:

In Hydrometer We Trust.

2 same readings 3 days apart, the beer is finished and can be safely bottled.

Premature bottling could cause over-carbonation and maybe bottle bombs.

I sense a reply from Revvy coming any minute...

Welcome aboard. Don't mistake the airlock as an instrument to measure fermentation activity. Especially if you have a bucket, it's worthless for that purpose. So let it go for ~3 weeks and then take a hydrometer reading. If it's near where it's supposed to be and stays unchanged for three days, then you are good to bottle.

If you bottle before its done fermenting you're setting up for disaster (search the forums for "bottle bombs"). If your hydrometer reads the same for 3 days you CAN bottle, but letting it sit for another week will almost assuredly produce better beer, as the east clean up any off flavors they may have made.

lol

For hydro reading yes.

For the bottle? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the hydro reading.

Greyhound said:

I sense a reply from Revvy coming any minute...

Click to expand...

I can hear him hitting Ctrl+V right now...

Hugh_Jass said:

Only one way to know if your beer is ready to bottle:

In Hydrometer We Trust.

2 same readings 3 days apart, the beer is finished and can be safely bottled.

Premature bottling could cause over-carbonation and maybe bottle bombs.

Click to expand...

This is the only way to know that your fermentation is done. If you are just transferring to a secondary fermenter for conditioning, thats fine(usually not necessary-just keep it in primary-unless adding dry hops or other additions), but you don't want to bottle unless you KNOW that your fermentation is complete, otherwise you may have some bottle bombs on your hands....and everywhere else.

However, the bubbling is an OK indicator that fermentation has "slowed", and may be coming to completion, but never rely on that alone. Always check your hydrometer. I've had batches that have continued to bubble and even had foam still on the top, but the fermentation had been complete for weeks.