Bell's Best Brown clone still bubbling...

[BSD_Glass]

Hi all. Relatively new poster, been lurking (and learning like crazy) for over 6 months.

I'm having a peculiarity with my first brew made with harvested yeast from some Bell's amber. The second batch, a Two Hearted clone made with yeast from the same washing is finishing up fine and as expected.

brewed 11/17/2010

Best Brown Clone v2
All Grain
6 gallon batch

13 # 2 row
1 # Biscuit
1 # Crystal 60
1 # Victory
.25 # Chocolate

Mash at 155 for an hour

.3 oz Galena 60 min
.9 oz Cascade 60 min
.3 oz Fuggles 15 min
.9 oz Fuggles 5 min

OG 1.069
current FG 1.020

Pitched Bell's yeast harvested from Bells Amber, grown to 2 liter started, washed and saved in the back of the fridge. Made a 1400 ml starter from the saved washed yeast. Fermentation took off right away (overnight) and proceeded as normal except for the Kreusen (sp?) staying high for more than 2 weeks. I fermented in a temp controlled cabinet kept at 62*. Now at ~ 6 weeks, the gravity has settled out at 1.020 (sampled over 3 days), the samples taste really good and I'm wondering if I should bottle. There are still a STEADY stream of REALLY SMALL bubbles rising through the beer which is unlike any other beer I've made to date (28 brews since April 2010)

Should I bottle or wait? Or rack to secondary and wait? or cold crash in the garage (45*) and bottle?

Thanks for the expertise, you guys. I'm buy a membership when I clean up the finances from Xmas...

BSD

 

[jkreuze]

I got this one -

Take hydrometer readings over three days, if you see no change then fermentation is complete.

Bubbles are not a reliable indicator of fermentation completion, yadda yadda . .

 

[Revvy]

I got this one -

Take hydrometer readings over three days, if you see no change then fermentation is complete.

Bubbles are not a reliable indicator of fermentation completion, yadda yadda . .

Good Job!

 

[joety]

<<<(28 brews since April 2010)>>>

Nice work, fellow cheesehead. That is impressive.

I've had the small bubbles thing from time to time. Rarely did it result in a drop in SG, but one time I did have an infection (gusher type) that took the gravity down near 1.001 and it did produce those tiny bubbles the whole time. One of the advantage of kegging is the pressure relief valve that comes with every keg.

 

[BSD_Glass]

Thanks guys. Obviously, I have read that (about the three day no change gravity reading) but have never encountered the continual bubbling thing before and was SLIGHTLY concerned. I'll report in in a month to let you know how it tastes.

BSD

Brewin' to try to keep the pipeline full....

 

[Steelers77]

Is this the BYO version of the recipe?

I brewed that version and it was great, just brewed it again and pitched it with Brett, down to 1.010.

If I'm not mistaken the BYO version has a S.G. of 1.058 and final of 1.013 so around 78%attenuation. Depending on the profile of the yeast and the mash temp you may have reached your final gravity.

As mentioned earlier in the thread; "Take hydrometer readings over three days, if you see no change then fermentation is complete."

 

[HexKrak]

If you're really worried about it take another reading in a couple days, if it's the same, then it's done. The bubbles is most likely just your beer naturally degassing.

 

[BSD_Glass]

It is from the BYO 150 classic clone recipes magazine/book that I got with my brew kit I first bought off of craigslist.

BSD

 

[joety]

Coincidentally I just had a Best Brown last night I bought at Trader Joe's a couple weeks ago. Not bad, but I've had better Bell's products. Maybe they set the bar too high.

 

[Steelers77]

They must have adjusted the recipe at some time. How's the beer's progress?