Time to bottle?

[cvstrat]

I made my first brew 8 days ago and let it sit in primary until yesterday. I went to brew my second batch and transfered to a secondary just to free up a bucket. The question is I took my OG reading and it was a super low 1.021ish for an extra pale ale which should have been closer to 1.05 I believe. The consensus seemed to be that I HAD to have messed up my OG reading because my effeciency would have been like 40 percent or less if that was right.

Anyway it's leveled to 1.009 and has been for a few days. It's sitting in a glass carboy. I'm afraid my alcohol content is gonna be like 1.5% or less if my OG was right. Is there any benefit to letting it age in secondary? I was thinking of bottling a 12 pack and throwing out the rest. What do you guys think? Bottle, wait? Throw out?

 

[macabra11]

Taste it. Does it taste rancid? Moldy? Like "Satan's Anus"? NO... then DON'T THROW IT AWAY!!!!! Bottle it and see your beer through.

 

[bamadoh]

There isn't any reason to throw the beer out. We need to know a few things about the brew to give you more info. Was it an all grain or partial mash batch? Did you use top up water? What temp did you take readings in and what did you use to hold the hydrometer? There are several things that could affect your reading. Regardless you should leave it in the secondary for another 10 days to continue clearing and then bottle. Even if its low alcohol you will learn a lot about how the beer conditions and ages from the process of bottling and conditioning. You probably wont have a lot of the body and flavor of a beer with a higher OG but you will know what your first mistake tated like and will probably learn what to avoid in the future. Just my two cents so take it for what you want. I only have 9 batches under my belt so I still have a lot of mistakes to make.

 

[Clonefarmer]

Never dump a batch. Taste it, if it tastes good bottle it. Low ABV homebrew can still be pretty good.

 

[StoutFan]

You might be on the way to making a great session beer! With the low ABV, you can enjoy them all night, and still find your bed.

 

[double_e5]

It is fine. My guess is you did a partial boil, and the top-off water didn't get mixed well. It happens ALL the time. If you added all of the fermentables your OG would have been very close to 1.050.