IPA Reading 5.6% after 10 days

[snakechest]

Brewing my first batch ever, it's a Australian IPA followed all directions. Just transferred to secondary and took the reading of 5.6%. Not any activity in the air lock. Wondering if it's possible to start up fermentation again of should I just bottle?...lt smells great no weird smells, smells awesome.

Thanks and I enjoy all of the support and friendly brewers on this forum.

-Jake
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[Pivovar_Koucky]

5.6% what? ABV? Plato?

 

[snakechest]

Sorry alcohol by volume

ThAnks

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

So my understanding is that you have fermented for 10 days and you took a hydrometer reading and you read 5.6% ABV remaining in the beer. I don't really know how the % alcohol scale works on the hydrometer that well because I use specific gravity or deg. plato, but if my understanding is approximately correct that would mean that you have a gravity of ~1.042 or slightly under 11 deg. plato. If this is accurate you should absolutely not bottle now, your bottles will explode. If you are at 5.6 degrees plato you may be almost finished with fermentation, or may even be done depending on how strong the original wort was.

What temperature was your sample at? Did you take an original reading? Is the beer clear? Does it taste ungodly sweet?

In any case, if you bought a quality kit and the yeast wasn't dead everything should turn out fine. Most people on this forum, I think, would recommend waiting at least 3 weeks from brew day before bottling. If you feel the need to do some beer related activities buy another kit and brew that.

Wort + Yeast + Time = Good Beer

 

[snakechest]

I will post the information Wednesday (i travel constantly) I only remember percent by volume off top of head. Have every thing writing down at home.

Thanks you all rock

 

[winvarin]

A couple of additional questions to help narrow things down:
1. Original gravity? Current specific gravity"
2. What yeast did you use? How much did you pitch?
3. What was the temperature of your wort when you pitched? (if it was something above 60F, the calibration temp of most hydrometers, you may have a few gravity points that you didn't account for)
4. What was the ambient temperature of the room where you fermented?
5. Was this an extract beer or an all grain beer? I have heard of some people jumping right into AG so it's a viable question.
6. Grain bill/Recipe? If AG, what temp did you mash at and for how long?

 

[erikpete18]

Sorry alcohol by volume

ThAnks

Just for future reference, if you're using the scale on the hydrometer that is saying 5.6% ABV, I'm under the impression that its a potential ABV measurement, ie if it fermented it would give 5.6% ABV. I also think the one I have is generally meant for wine, which means that the ABV scale isn't all that useful for our purposes. If its one of the triple scale hydrometers (ABV, gravity, and plato), either the gravity or Plato will mean a lot more to you.

 

[snakechest]

I will defiantly get a hydrometer for beer and than post the results
. Thanks everyone!!