Opening Primary

[mmc1]

I've got a Brown Ale thats been in the Primary for 10 days. The airlock hasn't had any activity for about 5 days so I opened it up and took a hydrometer reading. Its 1.010 . Im going to wait another couple days and take another reading but I think its finished. My question is can I leave it in the Primary for another week or so even after opening it up a couple of times or should I go ahead and bottle it. My concern is since it is no longer fermenting it will not purge the air from the fermenter.

 

[woollybugger2]

You will be fine leaving it in the primary, CO2 is heavier than air so it will be a protective blanket on top of your brew. The yeasties are still doing their job and cleaning up... You'll find that a lot of people here leave there beer in the primary for 3 or 4 weeks before bottling.

 

[ifishsum]

Leave it in there, opening it up doesn't really hurt anything and the extra week will improve the flavor in the final product. CO2 is heavier than air so it's not like it flies out when you open it, it should stay down on the surface for the most part.

 

[Belmont]

You'll probably get as tired of hearing "just wait and it will be better" as I was when I first started reading this forum. The fact is they're right. However, if you bottled/kegged that beer right now while it's 1.010 and most likely finished with actual fermentation then you wouldn't end up with a bad beer. You'd be able to drink it and like it and if you're new them maybe you need a couple of quick easy batches to make yourself comfortable. The guys that tell you to wait have been doing this so long that they are no longer as anxious to taste what they put all that effort into. And in trying to brew a better beer every time they've found that letting it clean up in primary fermentation for longer and age for longer makes a better tasting beer. What woolybugger and ifishsum said about opening the primary not being dangerous is absolutely true. As long as you sanitize anything that you put in the beer then you're fine. Let it sit a couple of more weeks if you can wait. If not, bottle/keg it and enjoy. It's just as important to learn about green beer as it is about well aged beer.

 

[mmc1]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I'll wait another week then take a reading and bottle it.
I didn't think about CO2 being heavier than air. I tasted the sample I took and its already tasting pretty good just needs some carbonation.