When to bottle?

[KENZ]

I am currently brewing a Brewers Best steam style kit. My OG was 1.047, the target is 1.050-1.055. I figured not too far off. It fermented nicely for a week. I then transfered it to the secondary. The gravity was 1.012. The target FG is 1.010-1.015. After three days now the airlock is bubbling about once every 3-6 min. Should I just bottle it and skip the 2 weeks in the secondary? If I leave it is there a chance that there wouldn't be enough yeast left for bottle conditioning?Thanks.

 

[neovox]

If your FG is consistent it's done fermenting. There's nothing wrong with letting it sit in the bucket though. It will just get clearer.

As for the secondary, you'll see a lot of opinions both ways on this in the forums. In short, there's nothing wrong with leaving it in the primary for the total time instead of racking it to a secondary.

 

[RedGlass]

As long as you're sure it's done fermenting, there is nothing wrong with bottling. If you're getting consistent FG readings over the course of a few days, then it's done.

There won't be a problem with having enough yeast in suspension for bottle conditioning if you leave it in longer. Many people have aged in a fermentor for months and bottle conditioned with no problems. Leaving it in the secondary for the two weeks will help clear the beer, but it's not as if every yeast cell is falling out of suspension.