Confused beginner with 1006 gravity reading

[JohnRobert]

Hello,

First time brewer, long time beer drinker.

I recently purchased a coopers brew kit, and my wort is currently in the plastic container bubbling away. Anyway, to cut a long story short it seems to be going fairly well but I'm slightly confused by the instructions that the kit came with.

Word for word:

As the fermentation progresses the brew becomes less and less dense and the hydrometer will sink lower into the tube. When ready, the final reading should be 1008 - 1010 when using the Coopers brewing sugar provided in this kit.

I am using the sugar that came with the kit and I've been super careful to follow the instructions, however I'm currently getting a reading of 1006, and I spun my hydrometer around and got rid of the bubbles etc.. I also measured it twice to make sure. The room temp (and wort temp) are about 20c (20.3c-ish.)

Yesterday when I tested the gravity, I did actually get a reading of 1008 but my friend who has done a few home brews recommended I give it a couple more days just to be sure.

I'm worried I've left it too long! As I understand it, the specific gravity level is just going to get lower and lower and hence I've missed the target gravity recommended by the guide.

The guide says that I go on to secondary fermentation using the plastic 740ml bottles provided (and carbonation drops) once the wort is at their recommended 1008-1010 level.

• Am I at risk of blowing any bottles up if I bottle it now?
• Have I ruined my beer?
• Should I be panicking?

One good thing is that it does actually taste like flat-ish beer and not eggs or weirdness..

Thanks very much for your help, I'm quite concerned as I'm a huge fan of beer!!

Oh yeah, here's the reading - maybe I just read it wrong?

 

[bootney]

Doesn't your hydrometer measure 1.016?

 

[Brewham]

That is reading 1.018 meaning - you ain't done. You said it is still bubbling so leave it alone. Once the hydrometer gives you the same reading for a couple of days in a row, the primary fermentation is finished. You can't overshoot as the yeast will stop working when they run out of sugars, then they start working on cleaning up the by-products of fermentation. You can safely leave it alone for a few weeks and hopefully it will finally finish out below 1.010 (as a rough estimate).

 

[JohnRobert]

Ah yes, I think I was just reading it totally wrong

Thanks guys!! Good to know it's ok.. still quite a bit of fermenting to go..