Need some advice please (Ready OR NOT)

[Dermot]

First off all hi, and hope that you experts will not mind helping another amature. I put down two brews 12 days ago. One was Woodfordes Great eastern and second was Dog bolter, Great eastern was OG 1048 and Dog bolter was 1064, All done to correct spec, except used beer enhanser and only 30 pints of liquid instead of 40 in the Great eastern. 12 days is a long time and the SG right now is 1020 on both brews. Has not changed in 48 hours but still quite a lot of activity gas wise in the Great eastern. Should I put them in the barrells now?. My estimation re the Great eastern is only 3.7%, supposed to be 4.5% (and I only used 30 pints liq) so would expect better than 1020.
P.S. one more question, I would like to put down another two brews soon, but will not be back to look after them for a month, how long can I leave a brew in primary fermantation before I bottle or barrel.
Tks again.

[Dermot]

Thanks Daab for taking the time to reply, its appreciated. Done what suggested added some safale today to the Woodfordes, but put the dogbolter in the barrel, because from 1064 down to 1020 seems OK. Its over 10 years since I brewed and that was in the desert, where Ive seen some horrible looking brews but they all tasted perfect, depends where you are and what you have got available. Reading thru a few postings Woodfordes does not appear to all that reliable re yeast, is it better in general to replace the supplied yeast with a substitute. (if so what) Ive made quite a few alterations in the past due to circumstances and all worked out fine as long as everything was clean and steralised, stuck exactly to the instructions this time and now a stuck brew!. Anyway, its bubbling away now and will 'have to' bottle it within a week so hope it calms down.
rgds, Dermot

[Reg]

1020 should be fine. Plenty of residuals means plenty of flavour. Enjoy your firkin Dogbolter!

[Hoppkins]

By beer enhancer do you mean the 1kg bags of malt/dextrose mix? If so then Great Eastern is an all malt kit and should not require additional malt.

[Hoppkins]

I'll get my coat then

[BIGTRACTOR]

daab, do you think normal winemaking yeast nutrient would suffice? I don't mind trying it, but if its gonna leave off-flavours in the beer then i won't.

[Frothy]

Dermot
Wouldn't be too worried. I made an AG stout recently that took the best part of 4 weeks to ferment out. It's quite safe in the primary for a number of weeks. If you want to use some natural carbonation it's pretty ideal to transfer to the pressure barrel @ 1.010-1.020 and let it mature/ finish fermenting in there for 2-4weeks. As Reg says one of my best beers I drank at 1.020

Frothy