Gravity still dropping after 3 weeks

[Marktic]

What should I do with my IPA?

I brewed a hopbursted mosaic IPA on December 15 (today is now day 23). It has currently been dry hopped for 9 days. My issue is that the airlock is still slowly bubbling, about evey minute or two, and yes, the gravity is slowly dropping as well. It was supposed to finish at 1.012 from an OG of 1.059.

1.013 on Dec 29th (14 days)
1.011 on Jan 3rd (19 days)
1.009 on Jan 7th (23 days)

I do have a mild worry of infection. Everything went very well minus the dropping of my brand new whisk into the fermenter. The handle was the only part not sanitized, but it was just out of the box from Amazon, if that counts for anything. I left the whisk in the wort which may have not been the best decision. The hydrometer sample tastes as I would expect, also nicely mango like. There is just a thin layer of hops floating on the wort, no visible signs of infection.

So worries of infection put aside, (it is just a long ferment, right?)...what should my next step be? I am wondering if I should rack it to secondary at this point, to reduce the time on the 4 ounces of hops. Or if I left it alone where it currently is, would another few days cause it to develop grassy flavours on the mosiac hops? How rare is it for a ferment to go over a couple weeks time?

 

[pegcitybrewer]

Well I'm no expert, but if your senses aren't telling you there's an infection(can't see or Taste or smell it) then you're probably fine. What fermenatbles are in it? Any simple sugars that the yeasties could just be going to town on?

As for the hop scenario I can't say for mosaic, never used them but I did do something similar with nugget hops once and it turned out quite oily, but that could have just been the nugget specifically.

 

[Marktic]

Here is my recipe...

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.50 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.19 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 56.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.8 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 87.0 %
8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 4.3 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 4.3 %
4.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.2 %
4.0 oz Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.2 %
0.75 oz Mosaic [12.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 18.6 IBUs
4.00 oz Mosaic [12.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Mosaic [12.50 %] - Boil 2.0 min Hop 10 3.5 IBUs
0.75 oz Mosaic [12.50 %] - Boil 7.0 min Hop 9 8.3 IBUs
0.75 oz Mosaic [12.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 11.1 IBUs
0.75 oz Mosaic [12.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 15.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 11 -

 

[flars]

It is possible CO2 was floating your hydrometer high in your first samples.

If it is infection causing the SG to drop, and you bottle, the bottles may begin exploding. Kegging would not have the same risk.

Seems like a pellicle would be forming by now if infection was the cause of the dropping SG.

I have dry hopped for two weeks with 1 ounce of Centennial, no off flavors.

Look for reviews of Mosaic in a long dry hop. No reports of off flavors, let it go until the SG stabilizes.

 

[rlmiller10]

You could always rack to a secondary to get it off the hops and yeast cake. Then just watch it for a couple of weeks to see if a pellicle forms. To avoid oxidation you will want to minimize taking gravities, but in a couple of weeks try again.

 

[secondbase]

I would rack it off the hops into a new fermentor and let the gravity stabilize before bottling. I don't imagine it'll drop too much further, but the yeast needs a couple extra days to clean up and flocculate properly. I would be worried about the hops getting grassy.