How do I know when its done fermenting?

Okay so my beer will have been in the main fermenter one week on Thursday. I still have good pressure. My question is what should my hydrometer rating be or does that vary on the beer you make? I plan on keeping in the main fermenter at least 10 days and I am going to start taking reading this Thursday

The hydrometer reading (final gravity) varies based on the beer. Two weeks is pretty much always going to be long enough. If you take a reading on Thursday and it stays the same Friday and Saturday then you're good to go.

Does your recipe have a suggested final gravity?

If you post your recipe, we could help you find out a good ball-park.

Tasting helps, too

I would suggest leaving in the primary as long as you could stand, however...2-3 weeks is my bare minimum.

What was your OG? ( original gravity ) and what type of beer is it? If it has been in for a week you will want to wait at least one more week. If you bottle too soon you will have bottle bombs.

It says my final gravity should be 1.018. The beer is a Dogfish 60 minute clone i found on here by "Yooperbrew". And should I refrain from opening the fermenter and risk exposing it from air? I can wait two weeks I just want this to come out right

Multiple - Dogfish Head 60 Minute Clone (AG) & Extract
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Pacman (see note)
Yeast Starter: Absolutely
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.070
Final Gravity: 1.018
IBU: 67.4
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 4.8
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 at 63 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 at 63 degrees

13 Pounds 2-row (US)
6 ounces Maris Otter malt
EDIT- I've been using Amber malt instead, and it's great! Thomas Fawcett amber malt.

.75 Warrior hops 16.4% AA (60 minutes) SEE NOTES ON HOPPING!
.50 Amarillo Gold 8.5% (35 minutes)
.50 Simco 12% (30 minutes)
.50 Simco 12% Dry hop
1.00 Amarillo Gold Dry hop
Irish Moss ( 1 tsp with 15 minutes left in the boil)

Pacman yeast used- took the f.g. to 1.010!

Hops were added as continous- first warrior only for the first 25 minutes just a few pellets at a time, then remainder all mixed together and continuosly added, starting at 35 minutes. Starter used, as pacman was reused. Fermentation started within 3 hours, at a nice steady rate for 6-8 days. F.g. was a bit low- ?temperature problems in the mash? I wanted the f.g. to be a bit higher and tried to mash at 153-154. Still, the f.g was a bit lower than I wanted at 1.010. I wanted it to be around 1.018.
Dry hopped 2/13/07 (pellet hops). Bottled 2/24/07.

As high as your original gravity is, I would leave that sit in the fermenter for at least a month before racking it off to anything. The reason? The yeast will create a lot of by-products during fermentation, leaving it sit on the yeast cake longer will allow the yeast to clean up after themselves creating a much cleaner taste in your beer.

Thanks Freddy, that wasn't my original gravity that was the recipes. I did not take my own (noob mistake)

If you followed the recipe, that OG is probably pretty close to actual. The more patience you have with your beers, the better they will taste. Good beer is not made, it's allowed to happen.

Haha i like that, so i guess I will wait until the 14th give it two solid weeks and see where im at

As a general practice I use 75% attenuation (a middle ground) for all my yeasts.

Divide the OG by 4 for your projected FG....70/4=17.8...so 18 is good.

problem, I changed airlocks today to a better one, when i did i peaked in the whole and there was little to no krausen on top of the beer???? From what i have seen this seems highly abnormal. However, the beer smelled great!

Ukfan369 said:

problem, I changed airlocks today to a better one, when i did i peaked in the whole and there was little to no krausen on top of the beer???? From what i have seen this seems highly abnormal. However, the beer smelled great!

Click to expand...

could be that the krausen already fell, fermentations can happen really fast. or perhaps it hasn't built up yet, i forget when you started this. did you have any evidence of fermentation with the first airlock?

Yes i have airlock activity and strong the first 3 days

That just means it's finishing up. The krausen only is around during the most active part of fermentation. After it starts winding down, the krausen drops back into the beer. If the temperature was warm, a fermentation can go very quickly.

Even so, leave it alone for at least another week and allow it to "clean up" after itself. After the yeast eats all the available sugars, it then digests its own waste products (like diacetyl), so there is a benefit on waiting a bit especially on a beer with a high OG like that one.

Always take the OG that is the only way to truly judge the beer

I'd go at least 12 to 14 days in the primary, reguardless of the hydro reading. I used to do the 1-2-3 method (1 wk primary, 2 wks secondary, 3 wks in bottle) but now I go 2-3-3 and have noticed a significant improvement in the quality of the beer.

First time poster here.

How does one go about taking hydro readings?

I have a plastic bucket. I thought you didn't want to take off the lid during the fermentation process, hence the airlock.

Is it okay to remove the airlock, take a sample through the hole (I guess with a hose) and put the airlock back?

Just waiting for my extracts to arrive from AHS to get my first batch started.

Thanks

Your best bet is to let it sit until fermentation should be complete (AT LEAST a week, and I would go two) before taking a sample. No reason to lift that lid more often than necessary.

However, you're not going to get tons of oxygen into your batch from taking a few samples. There is a blanket of co2 on top of your beer due to the yeast doing their thing and it won't absorbe into the beer without shaking anyway.

So, be patient and only take a sample when you are pretty sure your beer is done anyway and you're ready to keg or bottle.

So when I do take a hydro sample (after 2 or 3 weeks), it sounds like it's okay to take the lid off...

Is that how others do it or are there better ways of sampling?