Sorry, I'm brand new.

[greggo2]

OK, boiled my brew on Saturday. Cooled to 65 degrees and poured into primary. OG was 1.051. Added Nottingham Ale Yeast. I expected about a week in the primary as the temp in my dining room is about 62 degrees. All bubbling stopped on Tuesday. Out of curiosity I opened up (After spraying with sanitizer) and took a hydrometer sample. SG is now 1.011, which is right where the brew stats say the final gravity should be. 3 days doesn't seem like enough, so I figure I'll do another reading on Wednesday night and if it's the same, I'll rack to a secondary. Does this sound reasonable?

 

[NivekD]

Yep, notty will eat through that in no time...no need to secondary...let it ride for another 10 days, take a reading, and if it's stable...bottle it.

...cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

Ale yeast are quick to eat the malt sugars and reduce the gravity but that isn't the whole story. They tend to make a bunch of intermediate compounds and then when the sugars are gone, they go back and clean up or digest those intermediate compounds. During this time the gravity may creep down a bit more. I'd give this beer another 2 weeks and then check the gravity with your hydrometer, wait a couple more days and check it again. If the readings haven't changed, you can bottle.

Notice that I didn't mention moving the beer to secondary? That's because most beers don't benefit by moving them and the move can be detrimental.

 

[sompls]

What they said...I'm still new but I actually let my beers sit for 3 weeks. Maybe a tad bit sooner but nothing ever bad happens by letting them do their thing for a couple of weeks. I honestly believe my beers are better because I do let them go that long. I tried Notty once and it did the same thing...I haven't used it since, I like the slow and steady.
Also, haven't used a secondary since the first beer a year ago.

 

[Foosier]

what you see is definitely expected. 3 days does seem fast, but I have a batch of an English brown that finished in 3 days also once I got the yeast going. As others have said. Skip the "secondary". It is not necessary and is actually nothing more than a "brite tank" step to let more particles to fall out of suspension. You can skip this if you are just careful when you rack to your bottling bucket or keg to avoid stirring up the yeast cake.

 

[brewbama]

I've had Ales do this too. I just waited for two weeks and checked for FG.

 

[greggo2]

Thanks for the advise. I'll give it another two weeks and should be ready to bottle it up. This is my first brew, Brewer's Best American Amber. Gotta tell ya, the hydrometer sample tasted pretty good.

 

[brewguyver]

If you're not aging the beer a long time (months) or adding things into the beer that would make yeast sediment hanging around annoying, no need.

You can get better results by sticking the bucket in your fridge for 3-6 days (if you have room) after a few weeks. This is called cold crashing - it'll get most of the yeast to drop out and give you a clearer beer. There will still be enough yeast left to bottle carb.