Is my wort ready to keg?

Hi

It's been fermenting for 7 days now (instructions said 4-6 days). Gravity was 1.012 yesterday and is 1.011 today. It has little brown bits sitting on the top (see photo)...do I need to wait for these to all sink/disappear before kegging? Should I leave it for a few more days?

Thanks

Ian

leaving a few more days wont hurt. Once you have the same gravity reading for 3 days or 3 readings then it is safe to rack.

pastorofmuppets said:

leaving a few more days wont hurt. Once you have the same gravity reading for 3 days or 3 readings then it is safe to rack.

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+1

Leave it for another week, then check the gravity. I usually leave mine for 3-4 weeks depending on the original gravity just to give the yeastie beasties time to clean up and for the flavors to blend a little. Lots of sampling and opening the fermenter are lots of opportunity for contamination... Touch it as little as possible and you reduce the risk of infection (heh heh =] )
Kit instructions are notoriously bad. You'll have better beer if you don't rush things.

What recipe is it and what was the OG?

It's a Milestone IPA 23L kit...I'm from the UK so it may be a different brand. I didn't get the OG as I didn't have the hydrometer, but day 2 was 1.044.

Thanks, will leave longer. It's my first batch of homebrew...NOVICE!

Sorry to keep asking.

It seems to have settled at 1.010

But still has a few little brown bits on top (see image). Shall I continue to leave it for a few more days or is it ready to keg?

I remember my first few batches. Waiting is hard to do! Hopefully you have some back-up beer to drink while you wait. All that crud on top will fall out with time. I'd suggest that once your beer is finished fermenting, you move your carboy to an area that has significantly lower temps. This will help all of the particles you see fall/drop out of suspension and settle on the yeast cake. I move mine to the garage 1-2 days before transferring where it is 50 degrees or so. This is called cold crashing and helps improve the clarity of your brew. From there, don't move your carboy much before transfer as you will mix all the gunk up again, polluting the clarity. You want to leave all that behind when you siphon.

I agree above with everything that has been said...especially checking the gravity every day or so...you are flirting with contamination. With time, you will learn to give approx 2 weeks for fermentation at minimum unless you pitch lots of extra yeast.

No, wort is not ready to keg. Beer however is ready

Many of the beginners kits say to only leave the beer in primary for 7-10 days. I always tell people that they should wait longer, between 2-3 weeks. More wort proteins (like the ones you are seeing at the top of your fermenter) will drop out, the yeast will continue clearing out the beer and also flocculate out more.

When I first started keeping it in primary longer like this, I was impressed by the improvement in the final product.

So - chill out and wait a few more days if you want a better product. If you really want beer now, go ahead and bottle or keg!

Always error on the side of time with fermentation when homebrewing. Most homebrewers are not commercial brewers that can control every variable to get a batch to ferment efficiently in a 7 day range (or faster). The cheapest and best way is to use time to your advantage. Waiting is hard to do at first, but you will learn this along the way! I hope it turns out well for you.

Just checked my wort again, after the advice given to leave it longer.

It's settled at 1.010. Just taken some photos to show you.

There's still a few odd bits floating on the top and just beneath the surface. Some of the bits on top look a little like mould on food. Is this ok?

Do I need to wait longer? It's in the coolest part of the house at 17C (which I think is 62.6F) for 3 days now, as per advice given above.

In total, it's been in the fermenting bucket for 2 & 1/2 weeks at around 21C

Not sure if the mould means it's ruined or that it needs longer.

It's smells GREAT by the way

Looks pretty normal to me. Fermentation is not pretty. Now that it looks like it has cleared up and the gravity readings have stablized its ready to keg or bottle.

Good luck!

Just checked my wort again, after the advice given to leave it longer.

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It stops being called wort the moment you have pitched your yeast. What you have there is a good looking BEER.

Psycotte said:

It stops being called wort the moment you have pitched your yeast. What you have there is a good looking BEER.

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This.

Based on your initial post, it looks like it's been about 2.5 weeks now, the gravity appears to be stable, and the pics look perfectly normal. Should be good to rack it to a keg or bottle at this point.

Also, I know it's hard, but patience is a virtue. For your next batch, just let it go for the first 2-3 weeks before checking. Less risk of infection that way.

Everything looks completely normal to me. If you're kegging, patients is most definitely your friend, and a month in the carboy won't do anything but help. I can't tell you how often young beers are consumed before they reach their peak. If you can stand it, I'd wait, cold crash it and rack to the keg, and try to wait some more. But if this is your first brew, I understand, all bets are off.

My suggestion would be to brew more often so you won't be pressured to drink immature beer. Either way

Agree with what others have said, this looks totally normal.

As a side note, the bits on top that "look a little like mould on food" are most likely just residual C02 bubbles streaming up from the yeast cake. I know it looks like mold, but if you shine a flashlight through the side of the fermenter, you will probably see small bubbles rising into the "moldy" spots (which are actually just little bubble clusters).

I see leftover krausen and possibly yeast rafts. It seems you have stable gravity. It is ok to keg your beer now or you can wait another couple of days and I bet the rest of what is floating now will be gone.

I have done a few at about 2 weeks but do most for 3 weeks. I feel the extra time allows the yeast to fully finish what they do and any extra suspended particles will fall, giving a cleaner beer.

I'm not a big fan of opening lids on fermenters too often. So personally, at this point, I'd go ahead and keg it and get some CO2 on top of it. After it fermented, you had a perfect little beer environment in there. Beer, with CO2 on top and nothing could get in. Opening the lid, checking gravity frequently, that all gives other things a chance to get it, especially oxygen.

So, since your gravity is stable and it's been over 2 weeks, I think it's good time to keg. You can still let it sit and condition in the keg for another week or so if you wish. I just always feel a little safer with a nice layer of CO2 on top of my beer. And more than likely, right now in the bucket, you probably have oxygen in there.

Thanks for all the advice! I've transferred it to my 5 gallon keg....looked clean as I was transferring.

Will leave the next batch 2-3 weeks...and will ignore the instructions that come with it

Parkini said:

...and will ignore the instructions that come with it
View attachment 172352View attachment 172353

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Sounds like the best route you could take. I'll use the kit instructions solely for the recipe (and that usually gets a tweaking as well), the procedure can be anything you make it...