First Batch Anxiety

I'm a new brewer that just put my first batch into the fermenting bucket at midnight last Sunday. So, it's been about 8 days. The fermentation was a slow start, about 36 hours, but then things seemed to be going very well. OG was 1.055 which was right on the mark according to the recipe (which used 6lb. of malt extract and then 4 specialty grains about a half-pound each). The reading might have been a little higher, because I was still getting used to reading the hydrometer that first time.

On Friday, I guess I was getting impatient, because the bubbles had slowed significantly and I decided to take a hydrometer reading. It was 1.030, so I sealed it back up and let it go. It fermented well through the weekend but slowed down a lot on Sunday evening (a week from going in), and all but stagnated yesterday. I took another reading and it was at 1.025. There have been no visible signs in the airlock of any visible fermentation since then. The recipe calls for the FG to get down to 1.013. The temperature has been pretty steady around 68-70 for the length of the eight days.

Should I give it a couple more days in the fermenter or take a reading today and, if it's still 1.025, bottle it?

No way to early to bottle. Recipes say very short time on fermenting but they are wrong. Let her go...she i still going with out airlock activity. When you took your SG reading you should watch a little an you'll noticed the small bubbles coming up just under the surface. I was where you are now in Jan of this year, just take it easy and relax....she'll get down near at least 1.015.

I always give my beer 3 weeks before I even take a gravity reading. relax, and have a homebrew.

Let it ferment for at least a week before doing anything else to it. Airlock activity is not a solid indication of fermentation. It could be bubbling for reasons other than fermentation, or it could be not bubbling but still fermenting.

Let it go for a week and then test the gravity, a day or two later test the gravity again. If it's the same, go on to the next step.

If you got your recipe from Home Sweet Homebrew, it's not really correct. Their directions had me bottling after a few days if I didn't want to put it into secondary, and a week if I put it into a secondary. That's a rather short time. I usually try to do a week or two in primary then another week or two in secondary so that it's been a total of at least 3 weeks since the boil.

Let it ride. After another week, if it's still a bit high, raise the temp up a little. You may not reach the terminal gravity they call for in the end.

It could drop 10 points and you may never see another bubble.

Three weeks min.