Fermenting in a bottle question

[Aloha_Brew]

Alright, my latest batch is at 8 days of fermenting. I just racked to my secondary carboy yesterday in preps to bottle. However, the airlock never stopped bubbling, even now, and there is a slight krausen in the carboy. OG was at 1.081 and SG yesterday at 1.022. By my calculations it should only maybe go down .002 points or so. So, the question is: if I bottle it now and naturally carb with slow-fermenting DME am I going to risk exploding bottles?

Wanted to bottle to take over to a friends house tomorrow. They have AC and can regulate temps better than I can. Plus they would leave later tomorrow for a weeks vacation.

 

[Calder]

Leave it alone, and let it finish.

It is very difficult to know where a beer will finish; depends on a lot of different things. Priming adds about .002-.003 gravity points. If you prime and it goes down an additional 3 points, you will end up with twice the carbonation and have gushers when you open the bottles. If it goes down more, you could get bottle bombs.

I just bottled a Pale Ale using Essex yeast. Started 1.058, and expected it to end around 1.010. It went down to 1.002; I'm still trying to figure out why. If I had bottled at 1.010, I would have lots of broken bottles now.

Also, leaving it longer lets it clear, and leaves less sediment in the bottles.

 

[edecambra]

1.022 sounds a touch high to me too, and it has only been fermenting for a week. For a bigger beer like that you should give it time to finish fully and for the yeast to clean up any possible off flavors. I'd give it at least two weeks, maybe even more. I recently learned first hand how ending a fermentation prematurely can affect the taste of a brew, and it sure sucks!! worse than bottle bombs is a disappointing brew.

 

[charlesmartin]

not that i'm an expert, but you should leave it in the secondary for at least another week...after they finish fermenting, the yeast will do some cleaning that will only help. this is the wonderful part of brewing beer: learning patience.

 

[dancness]

+1 to all that has been said above.

For a beer with that high OG I'd say you want to let it ferment for AT LEAST a month.

The direct answer to your question is YES. You are risking bottle bombs by bottling the beer this early.

 

[Aloha_Brew]

Hah. Understand all. I just wanted to bottle it for the party coming up soon but I kinda knew better. I checked the SG again last night and it did drop .002 just in that one day. So, I'll leave it. Thanks for the sensible words everyone.