Is my brew still fermenting?!

[Pakawa]

Hello everyone, I brewed my first brew on the 4th and was going to bottle on the 25th. I have only looked at it a few times since then and today I went in to see how it is doing and there is a layer of foam on top still. Should I hold off bottling or is this normal? Shouldn't it be done fermenting?

 

[bratrules]

check your gravity!!!! that's everyone here is going to tell you. what was your OG? and where is it at now? that's the only way you can its ready to bottle you don't want bottle bombs.

 

[frazier]

Take a gravity reading, wait three days, take another. That's the only way to know.

 

[jessup]

sometimes fermentation will start again since the yeast needed a siesta. if you have a krausen after three weeks that's prob what happened. usually 3 weeks after primary is bottle time for a beer OG <1.060 for me if you know you had healthy yeast and your gravity has dropped to at least <1.020. gravity reading is the only way to be sure. fwiw i've had the same situation (fermentation ended, then restarted out of nowhere but i bottled anyway @ SG 1.014) and i went ahead with the bottling and everything ended up just fine. perhaps a little overcarbonated, but no gushers or anything serious. if you bottle it after the full 3 weeks of primary i bet it will be fine.