How long is too long?

[kepal]

Hi guys and gals, we are seasoned brewers now with 35 brews under our belt only joking still many questions, we have a basic coopers kit which we added 100g corn starch and 100g malt to and it is still bubbling (slowly) it has been in fermenter for 16 days, it smells fine and sorry but I am not tasting it and the hydro 1010, the air lock is not level either, what are we to do?

[warra48]

Don't know your full recipe, but it looks like you are probably at FG at 1.010.

If you get a stable reading over 3 days or so, and within your expected FG for your recipe, you are OK to go ahead and bottle. Of course, if you keg, it's not a concern.

The bubbling in your airlock is dissolved CO2 coming out of solution. Don't rely on your airlock as an indicator of progress of your fermentation. Instead, rely on your hydrometer.

I don't necessarily recommend it , but my brews can sit in primary for up to 4 weeks before I bottle.

[billybushcook]

On the subject of using the airlock as a guide,
Have a read through this thread.

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... =2&t=10411

I had been leaving my Ales in the Primary for 2 weeks & Lagers for 3. (mainly because it suited a constant rotation of 3 fermenters in my system)

I have recently found a big difference in clarity if I go an extra week ie 3 weeks for Ales & 4 for Lagers but being as you are doing Kit beers this may not be nescessary,
Still when I was doing Kits, I used to go 2 weeks in Primary so it might be worth a shot at leaving one longer & see if there is a noticable difference.

Cheers, Mick.

[barrelboy]

Hi Mick, if your brew has say 3 readings of the same FG and you leave it for a further week plus? What are the chances of the brew getting infected?
Ta bb

[billybushcook]

Pretty slim if you do not disturb it.
It will have a layer of Co2 sitting on top.

By taking samples from the tap you will be sucking some air in each time, this is one of the reasons I prefer to use cling wrap in place of a lid & airlock.
I can drop my hydrometer (sanitized of course) in while the brew is still very active but after the Krausen has died down & just leave it in there, then you can see what the gravity is from day to day without ever having to disturb it.

With time & experience though, you will not need to be taking regular readings, with the cling wrap, you can see whether it has fermented out properly but gravity readings are the only way to be absolutly sure.
These days, I rarely take readings until I'm ready to bottle (basically only checking Fg) & have never had a problem, but I'm doing pretty much the same beer again & again, so my readings only tell me what I already know. Different beers & different yeasts will vary & as already said, consistant gravity readings are the only way to tell by measure.

Mick.

[barrelboy]

Thanks Mick, that makes total sense. I never thought of leaving the hydro full time, their cheap enough as I sometimes run 3 fermenters.
bb

[squirt in the turns]

I can drop my hydrometer (sanitized of course) in while the brew is still very active but after the Krausen has died down & just leave it in there, then you can see what the gravity is from day to day without ever having to disturb it.

Sorry if I'm repeating something that's been said many times before: you would want to bear in mind that while this technique will tell you if the gravity has changed relative to yesterday's reading, you will inevitably get a few bits of dried krausen stuck to the hydro, weighing it down slightly. As Mick states, take a sample to get the exact FG when you're ready to keg/bottle.

A question Mick - do you have trouble with the hydro drifting to the side and getting stuck, or the scale facing away from you so you can't read it? If so, how do you deal with it without disturbing the beer too much?

[billybushcook]

tap the side of the fermenter, right where the hydro is,
it doesn't take much, just a short, sharp, tap, right on it & it will bounce off the side.

& yes, this is for a comparative reading, not true Fg.

Cheers, Mick

[kepal]

thanks for all the info ppls, as usual, we read and will take on board, we bottled that rogue tonight so hopefully it will be ok, husband is very suss on it tho, we are in queensland so it is quite warm and brews usually only take about a week to get to bottling stage. again thanks for answering my post