Extending Fermentation - Final Gravity = ready

On the 14th day I plan to take a final gravity reading...if it is ready for bottling, does it hurt to extend the fermentation by another couple of days if I do not have time to bottle that day?

No problem at all, especially if the beer could use a little more time to clear

Technically you need to take at least two hydrometer readings over a couple of days. If you only take one you are just measuring the SG at that time. If you take two you can verify that no more sugar has been eaten between those two readings, then you can conclude that the last reading is an FG-reading.

Most likely the beer is done at 14 days, but two readings is more by the book.

I usually let it ferment for about 4 weeks. I grab the FG reading while bottling. I have, on at least one occasion, had active fermentation still going at 2.5 weeks, but that was pretty unusual. I think if I was going to bottle at 2 weeks, I'd take 2 readings.

But yeah, extending the fermentation is not going to hurt anything (unless you dry-hopped - but you want to be at FG for that anyway).

Cheers,

My question is why bother checking the gravity if you aren't going to check it again for confirmation on bottling day and you aren't bottling that day? It seems to me that if you're going to open the fermenter up, you might as well take another reading when you are ready to bottle. Otherwise, I'd just leave the fermented closed and not risk infection.

Thanks for the fast replies! This is my first brew so I'm obviously a little unsure of the whole process. I only saw bubbles coming from the air stop for about 24 hours..is that a sign of a short fermentation process?

iahomebrew said:

Thanks for the fast replies! This is my first brew so I'm obviously a little unsure of the whole process. I only saw bubbles coming from the air stop for about 24 hours..is that a sign of a short fermentation process?

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Gas may have been escaping longer than 24 hour. You just may have not noticed the airlock releasing. The amount of time you see real active fermentation - to the point of the airlock releasing a couple times per second - varies so don't worry if it stops after 24 hours.

If you use SG to determine when to bottle you really need two readings otherwise how do you know when it has reached it FG? You can't say your SG reading is the FG until you are sure it isn't going to change anymore - for example you have two reading on two days that are the same or you have enough experience to know that after X amount of days fermentation is going to be finished with this recipe.

ncboiler said:

Gas may have been escaping longer than 24 hour. You just may have not noticed the airlock releasing. The amount of time you see real active fermentation - to the point of the airlock releasing a couple times per second - varies so don't worry if it stops after 24 hours.

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This is a very good point. I know that I thought my air lock had stopped bubbling because I watched it for 10-15 seconds and didn't see any activity. But when I checked on it the following morning, the liquid level in the airlock was lower than it had been the night before, and when I checked it again the next time it was in between the two levels. So I know that gas is still being released, it is just happening very very slowly compared to how it was behaving early on in fermentation.