Skip FG reading til bottling day?

[StophJS]

I brewed a milk stout last Tuesday with an OG of 1.061, pitched US-04 dry, and had solid bubbling for about 12 hours. By about 72 hours, I had a bit of a mess in and around my airlock. I cleaned out the airlock and reinstalled. I'm wondering if maybe I can just assume all is well and get away not even taking an FG reading until bottling day just for last minute verification, in the interest of not having to open the lid. Of course if it turns out it's underattenuated on bottling day, it's a little late to do anything. Is it generally a better idea to just take an FG reading after fermentation? I figure it won't even be accurate until a couple weeks in primary anyway. The last beer I did fell a full .006 during it's second week.

 

[Revvy]

Many of us leave our beers in primary for a month, this gives plenty of time for the beer ot actually ferment and the yeast plenty of time to clean up, condition and clear our beers. Because of that I only take a reading at yeast pitch and 30 days later when I get ready to bottle.

 

[ToddO]

Agreed - I never take a FG reading until I am bottling. Pitch enough yeast and wait the right time and you'll be good. Never understood the logic of opening up your fermentor for 3 days straight to make sure the FG was not still dropping. Just wait a few weeks and it will be done. Every time.

 

[StophJS]

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking along the same lines.

 

[Trail]

This is what I did. Except it wasn't really on purpose, I was just so excited that I forgot. So far so good.

 

[theredben]

It is always advised for people to take a few hydrometer reading during/shortly after fermentation the first few batches, and I agree with that. Once you have a few fermentations under your belt, you can be a little more comfortable in knowing when to worry or when to RDWHAHB.

I think when you are ready to stop "halfway" hydrometer readings, you are ready to move out of the beginner's forum!