Help!

[LoganE15]

started to ferment an amber kit 10 days ago and planned on bottling today. bubbles stopped about 5 days after putting into fermenter. the final gravity is a little off, and there is gunk on the bottom of the lid along with around the upper part of the fermenter. is it ok to bottle today still? is this gunk just the same stuff that is usually on the bottom of the fermenter? thank you

 

[Double_D]

It's kalled Krausen, it's not exactly the same because what's at the bottom is a lot of yeast and that stuff is coagulated protein and fusel oils, other random sediment and stuff. You're all good. Might want to give it a couple more days just to be safe in terms of being done fermenting though. Is the gravity higher or lower than you were expecting?

 

[CTownBrewer]

Did you take any hydrometer readings yet? If you have the same reading 3 days apart, then you know fermentation is complete & you can think about bottling. Bubbling in the airlock is not a good indication fermentation is complete. Hydrometer readings are the only way to know for sure. If you bottle before fermentation is done, you could end up with bottle bombs.

Also, it's good practice to leave your beer in the primary for an extra 1-2 weeks after fermentation is done to let the yeast clean up any off-flavors that may be present.

The gunk on the lid is krausen. During fermentation as the yeast does it's thing, a layer of foam will appear on top. No biggie...It probably just rose high enough to contact your lid. Anything left on the beer itself will eventually settle out. You might want to rig up a blowoff tube if it got that high so the lid doesn't blow off.

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