Is it done?

I've had my first batch of beer going for about 3 weeks now. A basic liquid malt brown ale kit that I picked up from the local brew shop. I took a hydrometer reading on Tuesday and racked it into a carboy. Tuesday it was about 1.020 - 1.018. Today it's about 1.018 - 1.016. It started at 1.045 which is inline for the directions and it's supposed to end at 1.010 - 1.012.

I'm still seeing a few bubbles in the carboy, and the airlock bubbles from time to time, but it's hard to tell because the beer is so dark.

Should I just leave it for another week?

 

It will never hurt to leave it for another week, just to be sure it is done

 

Leave it 'til you get a stable reading over a couple days.

 

It is probably done and the difference is an error in reading. But, if not and it is still dropping, you risk creating bottle bombs if fermentation continues in the bottles. I would wait another week.

 

The beer is done when hydrometer readings taken two days apart remain unchanged. For ales, further conditioning time from few days to a few weeks is normally a good idea, depending on the beer.

In the future, consider fermenting your ales in one vessel, without racking to a secondary.

 

You racked it into secondary before it was done fermenting?

 

Bubbles are probably due to the transfer. If that puppy aint finished from a 1.045 gravity after 3 weeks then we got bigger issues... Good luck...

 

I'd say it's done like dinner. Airlock activity is likely from the carbonation put into the beer from the fermentation process - it can still slowly off-gass for quite some time. Best to take a gravity reading two days in a row for safety's sake, but I'd be surprised if it still isn't done.

 

What's the point of racking it to a secondary if you aren't going to leave it in the secondary for any time?

Is it done? No, because 1.020 - 1.018 is a different number than 1.018 - 1.016.

And I have mockingbirds on my telephone wires. Both are fun to look at but neither tell you anything about whether your beer is done fermenting.

 

Thanks Andy, i'll check it again in a day or so. It seems a bit hard to get a super accurate reading on the hydrometer, but it looks like it was a little lower than the day before.

I wasn't really planning on racking it into the carboy, but I wanted to free up my bucket to start another batch.

 

I guess another question would be should I expect to hit the FG of 1.012 or it is close enough at this point?