Can fermentation be done if there are still still bubbles

Just wondering if anyone can give me some advice....
Here's what I've got (I'll be a specific as I can be):
Coopers - Bitter
boiled the malt extract and all water before on my stove and cooled before pitching my yeast (coopers ale yeast)

I've got a fermentation chiller set to a consistent 65 degrees
by day 2 I had a nice krausen, which went away on day 5 and I racked to a secondary on the same day
Now I'm on day 22 since I started and my specific gravity has been at 1.010 for at least a week (so to me it seems like this should be a final gravity....high, but not changing)

Here's the thing there is still a thin circle of bubbles around the neck of my carboy and I can see the occasional (small) bubbles coming to the surface....it doesn't seem like anything is coming through the airlock

So should I bottle? this is my first time using the fermentation chiller and after three weeks of primary/secondary and one week of consistent SG it feels like it should be done.....but the bubbles in the carboy are freaking me out....can it just be left over co2?

Eugene

If you have taken multiple grav readings and are near terminal gravity, then go ahead and bottle. The bubbles more than likely are just trapped co2 coming out from under the trub in the bottom of the fermenter.

ecormier said:

since I started and my specific gravity has been at 1.010 for at least a week (so to me it seems like this should be a final gravity....high, but not changing)

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That's not high at all. A majority of my beers finish at 1.010

Only time you're really going to get lower than that is with a lambic.

I use the extended primary method allowing my beers to sit in the primary fermenter for about a month before racking, I have had one in particular that continued to bubble through the airlock just as it were fermenting for well over a month (just co2 being released from solution). Just as Revvy states, always use your hydrometer to check if fermentation is still occuring it is the only way that you will know for certain.

BTW Revvy you should have a counter for how many times you explain the importance of hydrometer usage, it seems as though I come across at least a few threads a week with your "hydrometer talk" to some of the newer brewers. How many times would you say you have made the statements?

Schnitzengiggle said:

BTW Revvy you should have a counter for how many times you explain the importance of hydrometer usage, it seems as though I come across at least a few threads a week with your "hydrometer talk" to some of the newer brewers. How many times would you say you have made the statements?

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It seems like it averages about 5-10 times a day actually...But according to doing an advance search on posts by Revvy with the word hydrometer in it, I have only done it 462 times....Since January 3, 2008. That seems a little low, doesn't it?

Oh wait, add another 260 times I called it a "Hydro" and 497 times calling it a "gravity reading." *whew* I thought I was slipping.

I wish I didn't have to do it at all. But it appears that there's this "mentality" among many new brewers that using the hydrometer is somehow "messing with it" or "will harm their beer."

And yet many will grab a packet of yeast and re-pitch, or move to secondary, or dump their beer as "knee jerk reactions" BEFORE they would ever think of grabbing the hydrometer.

If you look at the threads on here like the "is my beer ruined threads" you will see that many times, the op's will give long detailed information about their recipe, their process, the squaring of the moon on brew day, and yet no mention of what is probably the most important piece of info they (and we) need to know in order to figure out what's going on.

I dunno what causes this "mentality" about the hydrometer...I don't think it's brewing books, becasue they all stress taking grav readings, I know it's not most brewing sites like this, because THEY advocate hydrometers....but there is this underlying misinterpretation of what the hydrometer is....like the title of that blog I wrote is, people "treat" their beers, without ever diagnosing whether or not there is even anything wrong.

It's a weird phenomenon.......

Revvy said:

I wish I didn't have to do it at all. But it appears that there's this "mentality" among many new brewers that using the hydrometer is somehow "messing with it" or "will harm their beer."

And yet many will grab a packet of yeast and re-pitch, or move to secondary, or dump their beer as "knee jerk reactions" BEFORE they would ever think of grabbing the hydrometer.

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Truer words have never been spoken. If it weren't for that question being asked ad nauseam, Revvy wouldn't have carpal tunnel syndrome.

wildwest450 said:

Truer words have never been spoken. If it weren't for that question being asked ad nauseam, Revvy wouldn't have carpal tunnel syndrome.

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+1,000

*owie*

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because sanitizing everything is a pain in the ass, and it's quicker and easier to skip that part.

We need Brewmaster Yoda to teach patience.



Hmmph. Panic. Speed. Guessing. Not these are the way to master the beermaking. A brewmaster aware he is of all things as he brews. Including. Specific. Gravity. Patience these young ones have not. Training they will receive. Yes... learn they will. Patience. Focus. Dedication. A brewmaster craves not speed, but cultivated contemplation. For nine *thousand* years brew beer have I, and judge me do you as hasty? Hmmph!

TheFlatline said:

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because sanitizing everything is a pain in the ass, and it's quicker and easier to skip that part.

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Interesting...so taking a spraybottle of your favorite sanitizer, zapping your turkeybaster or winetheif and fermenter lid with a few spritzes of sanitizer before you draw off a sample, respray the lid, seal it up and dump the sample into your test jar, is a "sanitizing pain in the ass?"

Really...three spritzes of sanitizer and about 10 seconds worth of work to know what your beer is doing???

Actually Yodabrewer has been teaching RDWHAHB.





(notice his choice in ale. )

I think it's more about beerfear, and thinking our beer is weak like a newborn baby....

I'm not saying it actually *is* a pain in the butt, but remember there's a lot of ignorance when you're starting out. I think we're both right. People are afraid of mucking with their beer, and then they think about sanitizing and everything and just groan.

I admit I don't take hydrometer readings all the time any more unless I want to know the ABV. If I just want to drink it, I skip the test and leave it in there for 2-3 weeks. Sloppy of me I know, but sometimes I just don't care what the details are and want to drink. Even when I do take FG readings, I wait 2-3 weeks and do it right before I bottle. If I take my reading and it's still in the 20's or 30's, I know I have a stuck fermentation (though usually I can tell before that), and I'll take appropriate actions.

Revvy said:

I wish I didn't have to do it at all. But it appears that there's this "mentality" among many new brewers that using the hydrometer is somehow "messing with it" or "will harm their beer."

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Well as a relatively new brewer (6 batches) I can sympathise with the new brewer not wanting to be "messing with it" as it is drilled into us from the beginnig that sanitation is critical to making beer. Even Palmer says the key to sucessful brewing is 70% sanitation.

I wish someone had said to me: "Sanitation & Fermentation temperatures" because of the 6 batches I've done, none have been ruined by infections but two have been ruined by high temps and it was only after I'd ruined the second dump batch that I understood what was wrong with the first one.

Revvy said:

Really...three spritzes of sanitizer and about 10 seconds worth of work to know what your beer is doing???

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A lot of us newbies don't have Starsan, and Iodophor and most other sanitizers aren't stable once diluted, so keeping a spray bottle isn't an option.

Diablo said:

I wish someone had said to me: "Sanitation & Fermentation temperatures" because of the 6 batches I've done, none have been ruined by infections but two have been ruined by high temps and it was only after I'd ruined the second dump batch that I understood what was wrong with the first one.

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Yeah, I second that. Completely true.

this is all very interesting but in my defense I will say that I was doing daily readings.....the original question was not how to know when it was done.....I just hadn't had a beer finish before while still having bubbles around the neck of the carboy (maybe it had something to do with my new "son of fermenter" chiller)

Synovia said:

A lot of us newbies don't have Starsan, and Iodophor and most other sanitizers aren't stable once diluted, so keeping a spray bottle isn't an option.

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Not entirely true...My kit came with my choice of iodophor or starsan, because my lhbs doesn't sell non fda approved sanitizers with kits, so won't sell onestep as a "sanitizer."

But that is really moot, there is plenty info on here about using iodine from the drug store in a pinch...or many other chemicals for a one shot sanitzer....

But even with the other Pseudo sanitizers like one-step...you don't have to mix up 5 gallons...you could just mix up a quart of so water to sanitizer your turkey baster...you could even do that in a small spray bottle and although you can't store it for too long...you'll have enough to take a grav reading so you don't have to stress out and think you beers are ruined when really they aren't...

ecormier, like many of us said the bubbles are really just co2 from the trub, and since YOU have taken your readings and fermentation is complete, it IS your choice what to do now...

it's bottled already and I've got another on the stove right now Thanks Revvy