At Final Gravity in 1 week - how often does this happen?

Hiya,

My 3rd batch of beer is a belgian ale. I used extract, and Wyeast #3522. Racked to a 6 gal better bottle, and left at 70 degrees for eight days.

Starting gravity was 1.044.

I racked to a secondary today, and the gravity is 1.011 already!! According to the recipe, I'm already at final gravity!

I'm going to plan on leaving it in the secondary for a week, and then bottling... but this seems really quick to me. I thought it took 2-3 weeks at minimum to hit the FG. Am I going nuts here, or did I just get some really good yeasties?

happens all the time. if you have healthy yeast and good conditions, it can even happen faster.

edit: leave it in the primary for another week and bottle from there, no need for the secondary in this case.

android said:

happens all the time. if you have healthy yeast and good conditions, it can even happen faster.

edit: leave it in the primary for another week and bottle from there, no need for the secondary in this case.

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The Robot's right.

You will find than many of us will advocate waiting a couple more weeks before even moving it to secondary. Though many of us opt for 1 month in primary and no secondary unless we are oaking or adding fruit, we even dry hop in primary after fermentation is complete (I wait til 2 weeks after yeast pitch to add hops.)

Just because the beer may be done fermenting, doesn't mean that the yeast are done doing work. If left alone, the the yeast like to clean up the byproduct of their fermentation; the stuff that produces off flavors.

Even John Palmer talks about this in How To Bew;

How To Brew said:

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring.

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Thanks for the tips guys, it's too late to not rack to a secondary now... the deed is done!

I know for the next batch to wait a little longer.

Why not? I pitched a Cream of Three Crops right on top of a previous SA-05 yeast cake. It took off in less than two hours.

Low ABV, it will be done in short order. I'm going to let it sit on the yeast cake, but....

Maybe the post count didn't make it obvious, but I'm a newb @ homebrewing.

Still learning the ropes!

I've had ferments complete in 2 days by pitching on a yeast cake. Rather explosive.

You can just leave it in the secondary for 2-3 weeks, since the deed is done.