bottle it or wait it out

I have a Irish red ale fermenting had rapid fermentation first 12 hrs blew up all over the place but then died down to a stand still for the last 3 weeks in the last three weeks it went from 1.022 to 1.020
original was 1.052 can i bottle this without much worries and have a slightly less alcohol content or is there a chance it could still drop down to the recipe's goal of 1.012 approximately a 1% drop in alcohol. 4.2 instead of 5.2
this was my first all grain and my first BIAB. so i am sure i F'ed something up somewhere down the line.
i took a taste today and it seems ok a little bitter but not bad.
seems like it would be a good beer if i bottled it now.
Just do not want to have any explode on me.

now if i do bottle now would i still use the same amount of sugar for priming as i would have if it was at 1.012 or should i use less/ more?


p.s the beer is not 100% still it is still making small bubbles at the top of the beer almost like it wants to form a head but not quite. this is after3 weeks started this beer on Oct 8th

also i upped the room temp up to 18-20*C for the last week and a half to try and wake it up.

If you have any doubt, then rouse up the yeast, warm it up to about 72 degrees, and wait one more week. If it does not drop, then bottle. You would PROBABLY be OK bottling now, but I would wait one more week to be sure.

I have heard that you can use a sanitized paddle to slowly stir and "wake up" the yeast. This would be after bringing up the temperature a bit...but not too much more than 70 degrees or so. Disclaimer: I have not tried this method myself.

I've had plenty of extract beers stop at 1.020. It's just due to the fermentability of the extract. if the FG isn't changing, it's fine to bottle. don't stir it or anything like that- you'll risk oxidation and the beer isn't going any lower anyway.

I have had this happen and a gentle swirl of the fermenter and increasing the temperature slightly woke the yeast up and dropped my beer another 5 points. Maybe worth a try.

Chances are at this point it is what it is.

After bottling it, might be a good idea to sacrifice one every few days to make sure you don't get into in bottle bombs.

Since it's your first AG/BIAB attempt it may have been that your mash temp was a bit on the low side and you ended up with more unfermentable sugars in your wort. This would lead to a higher FG. Would also make the beer sweeter, fuller bodied.

The bubbles you are seeing could also be just CO2 coming out of solution and rising to the surface due to the present elevated temperature.

Do another gravity test to see if you've come down any from 1.020 and, if no change, just bottle away.

That's a tough call, but it MIGHT just be enough to convince your spouse that it is time to invest in a kegging system.

Now that I think about it, I kinda wish I had your problem....

My first batch stopped at 1.020 as well. First I waited, then I moved it slightly warmer, then I swirled the bucket, but all for naught; 1.020 was the final number.

Tastes OK, just a bit light in the loafers for %. If I want to get hammered on low drink volume I have liquor...

Ogri said:

Since it's your first AG/BIAB attempt it may have been that your mash temp was a bit on the low side and you ended up with more unfermentable sugars in your wort. This would lead to a higher FG. Would also make the beer sweeter, fuller bodied.

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It's actually the reverse- higher temperature create more dextrins, and hence a higher ending FG. Lower temperatures favor a thinner, more fermentable wort.

Yooper said:

It's actually the reverse- higher temperature create more dextrins, and hence a higher ending FG. Lower temperatures favor a thinner, more fermentable wort.

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Oops Thanks for clarifying.

Yeah probably my mash temp. I was using a new digital thermometer and realized it was not reading the right temp when the alarm went off and it was showing. 260*f
I then put in my analog thermometer and it was about 20* hotter then it should have been and was like this for about 10-15 min.

I poured some cold water in to bring the temp back down..

So this should be ok to bottle? How will it affect flavor?

Thanks for your help

I have recently had a similar problem:
New to me double (2 x 1.7Kg kit) extract brew kit.
Started & went well for 3 days then one bubble from the airlock about every minute for another 10 days, Several sample readings showed a very slow drop from 1.02 to about 1.017. One wekk later still very slow bubble rate from airlock.
Brew tasted OK but too sweet for me.
Frustration made me keg it But even cold it's a bit sweet.
I am thinking now of rewarming to room temp & adding a champagne yeast. Might even leave it in the keg at room temp to see if any further action.
Note in this thread no-one suggested adding a different or higher efficiency yeast???
Is my idea dopey?

peterlonz said:

Note in this thread no-one suggested adding a different or higher efficiency yeast???
Is my idea dopey?

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Not dopey.

Just not going to do anything at all. It's not the yeast, it's the fermentability of the ingredients. If they are done, they are done. More yeast won't change that.

Yooper said:

Not dopey.

Just not going to do anything at all. It's not the yeast, it's the fermentability of the ingredients. If they are done, they are done. More yeast won't change that.

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Aside from doing something truly crazy like adding Beeno or such...

Try adding a hop tea to balance out the sweetness. Think of hops and sweetness as opposites. A tea made with hops in a tea bag like arrangement, boil for 15 minutes then chill and remove the bag. Let it settle and decant the liquid and add to your sweet beer. I've done this a few times and it works pretty well. Just be conservative and don't overshoot. Make more tea than you need and add slowly until you get what you want.
If you want more hop aroma, dry hop it.

OK best response seems to be: "modify the impact of sweetness by hop bitterness".
I had not really thought of that mainly because I was originally aiming for a relatively low bitterness ale. Luckily I do like well hopped beers.
But ................ what exactly is causing the residual sweetness in this brew that I don't normally encounter. Plainly you all believe it is unfermentable material but what the heck is it doing in my extract in the first place. Could it be artificial sweetener added to a low cost kit to deliver a designed in sweetness; suited perhaps to an un-iniated palate. In this case magnified by by "twocan" execution?

so since my original post i stirred up the yeast a little and kept the temp around 70* . airlock action increased to every 20 seconds for the last three days, don't know if it was just from mixing it around and the gasses getting out.
but today i check the gravity it had dropped to 1.017.
so my plan is mix it up again give it 5 days drop the temp and try to help it clear up a little faster then bottle.
does this sound like a good idea.

i am hopeful it will drop 2-3 more points and i will be happy with that.
who am i kidding if it stays at 1.017 ill still be happy and drink it...

just waiting on my yeast order so i can start my second All grain batch... a heffe.
sure do learn a lot just after one batch. (can't wait until i have a few dozen under my belt)

unionrdr said:

I don't think you'll need to swirl it up again. It should get down to about 1.014 or so now.

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ok i will let it sit until around Thursday or Friday and then drop the temps down to let it clear for a day or two.
what is a good temp to drop down to without killing the yeast

"There are also times where the yeast just won't finish getting the beer down to the FG range it should. That's where the extra bit of sweetness comes from". - opinion of Unionrdr.

Others have said "its unfermentables that can't be converted".

So I am still not clear - surely if a champagne yeast was added that would indicate whether the sweetness was caused by an inefficient yeast that just could not do the job - as opposed to the view that no yeast will change things.