Safe to bottle?

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Gizmo

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Hey. Just to be safe... I'm getting ready to bottle my first homebrew tonight and wanted to make sure it wouldn't explode in the bottle or anything; here's a quick rundown of where I am right now:

Made a .63 gal starter, pitched into 5.75 gal wort (OG approx 1.073-1.076, forgot to check). Aerated fairly well, (shaken in carboy).

Fermented in primary for 12 days. Accidently fermented on high end (75 deg) first 24 hrs, then dropped to 72-70. Fermented quickly and well (I think)
.1-.2 gal lost to blowoff and grav readings.

**Approx attenuation of yeast 67%-74% (WLP005)
Target FG from beer smith says 1.020 (Beersmith), FG stuck at 1.025 after 6 days in primary, racked to secondary for 10-14 days, still no change in FG.

I've read people asking about higher than average terminal gravity and worries about bottle bombs, but this was a fairly high gravity beer to start with. And I added .5 lb Cara-pils so that might not have fermented and caused a higher than expected FG, also I probably didn't aerate as well as I should have. So...as long as my gravity before bottling hasn't changed, is it safe to bottle and age? And yes, I know this beer 'should' age longer, but it's my first one and I'm anxious to taste it. I'll take my time on my 2nd, 3rd, and 145th brew :)
Thanks (sorry post is so long)
 
If you have to ask, it's too soon to bottle. You already know that it's a high FG and it's a big beer. I think you are asking for trouble bottling at 2 weeks but it's your beer. If you bottle, put them in a closed container while they carbonate.
 
Well yeah, but I thought you were supposed to go by the hydrometer and not a calendar. I know it can age more to improve flavor, but the FG hasn't moved in two weeks, it didn't even move after racking to secondary.
And yes, to be safe, when I age them I'm gonna do it in my downstairs shower, just in case I make a big mess :)

Oh, and I'm also going to slightly under prime these anyway, it's kind of an old ale/scotch ale type beer, and I want fairly low carbonation anyway, so I'm only going to use 1.8-2.0 volumes of carbonation (whatever that means); about 3.2-3.4 oz corn sugar (from beersmith)
 
Sounds to me like you paid good attention to your process and measured things well. I see that you have at least 14 days of consistent FG readings with a total of at least 21 days since brewing.

I don't even crunch my numbers this much. 2 weeks of consistent FG sounds like a good time to bottle if you're looking to drink this quickly. Plus, you state you want a lower carb level due to style so if you're using a kit, just leave some of the bottling sugars out to achieve this. Add them into another batch to slightly increase the ABV is what I do.

But, like the other poster mentioned, put them in a place where bottle bombs won't be a problem if you're concerned with bottle bombs.

Best advice, bottle this batch and start two more. Yes, two more 'cause you'll be wishing you did.
 
Yeah, this is I think the 22nd day since the yeast was pitched, and the grav hasn't moved since Feb 19th (I'm also doing brew logs to record progress on each beer). Just took another grav, still 1.025...

I think there were a few things that made it hard to reach my FG: (low attenuating, high flocculating yeast, no aeration mechanism, fermented too high temp first 24 hrs),
Plus I used at least .5 lbs unfermentables, which I know beersmith doesn't account for: I just put 15lbs of Cara-pils into beersmith, (OG 1.073 FG 1.017) LOL......

I just tasted it, and it's pretty good, a little more bittering hops than I wanted, but I'm a hophead, so it's cool by me.

And I'll be under-carbonating it on purpose just in case, it should be a little undercarbonated by style anyway. I'm not sure what amount of pressure is required to pop caps off bottles, but I'm sure it's way more than the 19 psi that my beer will have with only 3 oz of corn sugar (beersmith).
 
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