First fermented Hydrometer reading

Hello All,
The brew went into the fermenter last Saturday, with a reading of between 1030 and 1040 (Didn't have the thermometer then ). The Sunday and Monday morning were vigorous, with lot's of bubbles, and things have tapered off. My airlock was virtually still today so I decided to take a hydrometer reading (and a taste) of the brew. The current temp was around 74 and the reading was 1.018. Looking at the chart, temp adjustment chart, that means It's really 1.020.
I assume that means there is still fermenting to do? Shouldn't I be seeing bubbles in the airlock? I saw a surprising amount of bubbles in the beer... it practically looked carbonated the way it foamed up in the test jar, and I could see lots of little bubbles rising.

The taste was good, but left a really bitter after taste that faded quickly. I could see enjoying this batch

What are the thoughts of brew masters out there? I assume leave it? I wasn't planning or using a secondary for my first batch, but going straight to bottles when it was ready?

First thing, make sure to tap that hydrometer a couple of times to knock those effervecent bubbles off. They can "float" your hydromter and screw up your reading.

Pay no attention to the airlock when determining if your beer is "done". Take hydrometer readings and when you get 2-3 days where the reading is static...it's done.

BierMuncher said:

First thing, make sure to tap that hydrometer a couple of times to knock those effervecent bubbles off. They can "float" your hydromter and screw up your reading.

Pay no attention to the airlock when determining if your beer is "done". Take hydrometer readings and when you get 2-3 days where the reading is static...it's done.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips, I took another reading today and it looked like it was still 1020, but I bobbed the hydrometer up and down a few times and it settled about 1016, still not good but closer to the final goal. I'll give it a few more days, my LHBS has been out of bottling buckets for for two weeks now, always swearing they are going to be getting some more in soon, very frustrating....

This hobby sure takes a lot of patience...