1.020 in bottles

[Brewbot-14]

After a three weeks in the primary and a week in secondary I bottled my dark wheat beer(my first beer). My hydrometer broke and I figured I was okay after a month so I skipped the fg reading. Well it's been bottled for a week and I tasted it. It was really sweet so I let a little bit go flat and took a reading. It was 1.020. The target was 1.012. The yeast weren't dead since the bottles started carbing, why wouldn't fermentation have finished? Not enough O2? These bottles are probably going to explode if I leave them alone right? Should I pour them back into a bucket and ferment, or is some other reason why it wouldn't ferment further.

 

[eppo]

1.020 is were a lot of extract brews finish. I made an extract double chocolate stout that finished there, brewed it all grain and got 1.012. Some extracts are not as fermentable as the all grain wort. Don't worry and give it more time to carb.

 

[Brewbot-14]

Ok thanks. Are extract recipes usually sweeter tasting? Or will the sweetness be less of an issue after another 2 weeks in the bottle? Right now it's just a little too much.

 

[amandabab]

most extract KITS finish high because they load them up with darker extracts and/or unknown LME so your often doubling up on your unfermentables.

extract can be fermented right to the bottom, same as a mash.
its the other kit factors that cause it to finish high.
Stout kits are the worst offenders you don't need 6lbs of dark to get black.

 

[Brewbot-14]

Update: Tried this beer after 3 weeks in the bottle and it's great. The sweetness mellowed out, and the carbonation is just right.

 

[malkore]

Then you should be good. I bottled an extract stout at 1.026 once, and that stuff geyesered out of the bottles...well, the bottles that didn't explode

Since yer carb is just right, it sounds like you did ferment fully like you thought.