Imperial Blonde Ale

I just brewed a Imperial Blonde ale a week ago +/- and it has stopped bubbling in the carboy, it is still a cloudy caramel color. with all the sugars this has, it should still bubble for another week at least.
my question is this---do you all think it is a bad or old yeast? after 3 weeks should I re-yeast it.

after 3 weeks I hope to put in secondary and 3 weeks after that be ready to bottle and condition.

any ideas?

My first question would be about your specific gravity. Did you take a reading of your original gravity? If so, have you taken another reading since?
If your OG was 1.07 and is now 1.01, it could be done.
Also, what kind of yeast did you use?

More information necessary. Just as Sunward said, what was your OG, and where are you currently sitting for gravity?

First, bubble activity is never a good sign of when fermentation is complete.
Second, what makes you think it should still be fermenting for 2 weeks? Most yeasts, when pitched with the proper amount of vital cells, will reach FG by about day 10.
Third, it's your beer you can call it what you want, but why are you calling it an imperial blonde ale? Could possibly just be a tripel, or Belgian blonde or golden strong ale, or something like that.

I brew in a Brewcraft bucket and never get a good airtight seal so I hardly ever get bubbles but a better way to tell if it is done is has the krausen risen and fallen? If so, let it sit another week to be safe and then you could check your gravity and then bottle.

Ok--more info.
this is a Brewers Best Kit, the yeast is safale-us-05. the og was 1.053 or close to that

hoeky_b said:

Ok--more info.
this is a Brewers Best Kit, the yeast is safale-us-05. the og was 1.053 or close to that

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What's the gravity now?

That OG would fit it right into the category of American Blonde Ale, nothing Imperial about it.
US-05 is typically a pretty fast worker. It's not going to hurt this thing to age it a bit, but you really don't need 3 weeks in primary, then 3 weeks in secondary, and then another 3 weeks for bottle refermentation (conditioning). If it was me, I would go with 3 weeks in primary, and then bottle.

And in the future, in order to find out when the beer is finished, you should take a gravity reading using a hydrometer. Then you should wait two days, and take another reading. If they are the same, then you have most likely reached FG, and it's ok to bottle. As I said previously, with most normal-sized ales (yours falls into that category), fermentation, including the cleaning up phase, will be complete by around day 9-10. Leaving it longer in the primary won't hurt it, and if you cold crash and use gelatin, you can save yourself a lot of that conditioning time.

Sailingeric said:

I brew in a Brewcraft bucket and never get a good airtight seal so I hardly ever get bubbles.

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Yep. The first beer I brewed was in a bucket with a lid that didn't seal. My LHBS owner believes that gaskets in lids are just another location for infections to grow. But, the lack of bubbles through my airlock worried me and I ended up pitching a second round of yeast. Then I bought a hydrometer and my stress level went down.

As to the name of the beer, Imperial Blonde is the name of the kit. Even if the OG doesn't support that name. So, I believe hoeky can be forgiven.

so if I leave it in primary for 3 weeks then condition and bottle --should be good?

hoeky_b said:

so if I leave it in primary for 3 weeks then condition and bottle --should be good?

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I have had good results bottling after two weeks but your results may very.

hoeky_b said:

so if I leave it in primary for 3 weeks then condition and bottle --should be good?

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I would say, yes.

hoeky_b said:

so if I leave it in primary for 3 weeks then condition and bottle --should be good?

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Typically, with hop-forward beers, you want to be able to consume them as fresh as possible because the hop characters fade with time. That's why you will see a lot of people trying to rush those. The malt-forward styles will only come into their own with the more conditioning time they have, up to a point. The real imperial malt-forward styles often need a lot of conditioning time.

Yours is an American Blonde Ale, which is typically a more malt-forward style, though it's not actually imperial (no matter what the name of the kit is), and therefore doesn't need a long conditioning time. I think with three weeks in the primary, and then the three weeks that it takes for bottle refermentation (what is often called bottle conditioning), which will be 6 weeks from brew day, is a pretty good time frame for that style. Although you may find that it will really come into its peak around week 8-10.

It seems every homebrew store, and online beer startup kit, still sell people a secondary vessel. For most styles that homebrewers are brewing these days, the use of a secondary vessel has come under strong criticism, and deemed mostly unnecessary. It's an extra step that comes with risks. Here are the few reasons I rack to a secondary:
1) Long-term aging on some kind of adjuncts.
2) I need the bigger fermenter for a new brew.
3) I want to dry hop or add fruit, but plan to harvest the yeast cake.