Blueberry braggot priming question.

[candlejack]

Ok, so I'm kind of antsy and want to bottle different fruit braggots (peach, raspberry and blueberry) that I started 2 weeks ago.

The general ingredients for the brew, for a 1 gallon batch, was 1.5 pounds of honey, 1 pound of light malt and a pound of fruit in light syrup. I used safbrew s-33 dry brewing yeast.

After a week of fermenting, I racked off of the fruit and into a new gallon jug. I have seen some bubbles (still see some bubbles) but no airlock activity. Its been about a week since i had done the first racking.

I dont know the initial gravity, i did not have a hydrometer at the time, but using a calculator online (based on just the malt and honey) it said the initial gravity shoudl have been around 1.087. I know that the blueberries and syrups would have added more to this.

so my question is this, can i bottle my braggots now and prime them with some sugar? or should i wait a week and bottle then. Thank you for your help!

 

[ghpeel]

You cannot really trust your airlock to be an indicator of complete fermentation. You really need to get a hydrometer and measure the gravity every couple of days.

If you just can't get a hydrometer, then your best bet is to just leave it alone for another week or two. That pretty much NEVER hurts anything, so its an easy way to make sure you are done fermenting.

 

[candlejack]

kk, thank you!

 

[pabloj13]

It just depends on how badly you want to pick glass shards out of your arms. There is no way I would bottle something with that high of an OG after only two weeks with no idea of a FG.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I'd let that go for at least another week or two, minimum. Like ghpeel and pablo have said, it doesn't hurt to wait, especially with a honey based brew.

 

[candlejack]

so this kind of leads into a new question. How would i come up with a final gravity to shoot for? The yeast i used said about 7.5% alcohol but can survive up to 11.5% Should i just stop when i stop seeing bubbles? Also, if i stop seeing bubbles and it obviously still has some sugar in it, due to the high og, why add priming sugar?

in addition to this, ive bought two hydrometers. the first i made a mistake and got one for distilled alcohol, and the second one i bought only goes up to 1.080. any way i can use either of these? it seems like my local store may not have one that goes higher. blah.