gravity a little high pre-racking

[Beerhead]

Hey Im sitting in my kitchen and want to rack to secondary but not sure if I should. Right now my beer is sitting at 1.021 with an OG of 1.054. Im supposed to end up with a final of around 1.016-1.013. However my brew has been in primary for 10 days now and for the last 5 it has been at a constant SG. Ive stirred up the yeast twice now and it still hasnt changed after 3 days since the last time ive stirred it up. The temp has been around 66-70 for basically the whole fermentation period, except the beginning when it was a little higher.

Ive tasted it and right now it even tastes great. Im ready to go on this racking, but I need you guys to say the word!

 

[android]

well, if you've tried stirring it up and it's been the same for 5 days, I'd say it's done what it's going to. go ahead and rack it.

 

[android]

although, it wouldn't hurt to leave it on the yeast for another 5 days or longer. but if you want to free up the fermenter, that's OK.

what kind of brew is it?

 

[Beerhead]

its an english bitter, specifically the boddingtons bitter, but with a little bit extra extract to bump up the OG

 

[android]

totally up to you... i don't know much about that style, but i'm sure it would benefit from a few more days in the primary, but if you're eager to get moving with it, go ahead and rack it.

 

[snailsongs]

10 days is the earliest I would rack a beer like that, or any beer for that matter. It won't hurt it and will only help if you can keep your hands off of it for another week or so. Active fermentation is only half the battle....once the yeast begins to drop, let it go for a while and just chill out...the yeast are cleaning up the brew and the malt flavors are melding together.

......that said, you can bottle it if you want to. It will condition in the bottles too, but you will be more tempted to drink it to early and be a half batch gone before it has really reached it's potential. I bottled a toasted oat pale ale (using 'bitter' as a base from which to work) at 10 days because I was super eager.....I wasn't happy with it iuntil it had been in the bottles for close to a month, and I had drank nearly half the batch by then....just food for thought.....

 

[double_e5]

He's not talking about bottling. He wants to rack it to secondary.

Since you said you added a little extract to bump the OG, I'm guessing this was an all grain/partial mash. If so, what temp did you mash at? If it was on the high side, you have a bunch of unfermentable sugar in there and it is probably done.

 

[QueenCityALER]

If you want to hit that FG properly, you're gonna have to learn how to mash for the style. Mash has EVERYTHING to do with FG. There's other variables, but this is a major one. If you wanted less unfermentables you should have mashed for attenuation, at lower temps. and longer time.