Bottle or wait?

Wahoo87 · May 12, 2014

My first brew day was 14 days ago. I am brewing an Irish stout my OG was about 1.050. SG was 1.020. I waited 3 days took another SG still 1.020. The recipe I used said FG should be 1.011-1.014 but there is no action in the airlock. So my question is, should I bottle or take another course of action?

Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Luis · May 12, 2014

I am not an expert, I am about to bottle my third batch. I have been reading this forum for quite a while now, and I have read many times to wait at least 3 weeks in primary, even if you have reached your final gravity so the yeast can clean up many other components of the beer.
Also remember not to trust the airlock (and I am guessing you are not since you have been taking the gravity into account). In your case I would wait for at least 3 weeks in primary before bottling, but well, as I said before I am not an expert.

kaconga · May 12, 2014

Check it again in 2 more days and if it still hasn't moved at all then I would bottle it. Sometimes, especially with extract, the final gravity never gets down to where you wanted it to be.

jekeane · May 12, 2014

I would wait a few more days and check again. No airlock activity doesn't always mean no fermentation is going on (especially in a bucket) however after 14 days you should be good. Being it is your first brew did you adjust your gravity reading for temperature? Most hydrometers are calibrated to 68 degrees I believe. Did you make sure your hydrometer is properly calibrated? Often the scale in a hydrometer is paper and can slide up or down in shipping. Distilled water at your hydrometers temperature scale should be 1.000 if it isn't you need to adjust accordingly.

If you are stuck at 1.020 your options are to learn from it and bottle. You likely either didn't add enough yeast, enough oxygen (aeration), fermented at a wrong temperature, or pitched yeast that was a little to old. If you tell us exactly what and how you pitched your yeast we could likely figure that out for you.

Another option would be to attempt to restart fermentation which I have never done. My first few beers that this happened to I just let go to bottle. Then I started working on my yeast management and I got a bit better and haven't had that problem again.

Yooper · May 12, 2014

If it's been in the fermenter for 2 weeks, and the gravity is unchanging at 1.020, it's done.

Often, extract brews will stop at 1.020 (see the thread called "the 1.020 curse"), and especially with darker extracts and less fermentable darker grains.

It's finished, and can be bottled at your convenience.