Bottle at 1020?

[arturobandini]

Hi all,

Been brewing my Brewferm Diabolo kit (doubled up at 18l) since last Saturday making it 9 days in the FV thus far. I gave it a hydro check on friday (6 days) and from what I could read it was 1020. I gave it another check last night (8 days) and I got another reading of 1020 with my hydrometer. This gives me a current alcohol percentage of 7.1% with an expected fg of 1010 giving 8.4% / 8.5%. The kit seems to be bubbling away as it has done throughout the fermentation at a slow and steady rate and when I tipped my test jar into a champagne flute and held it to the light there was a mass of bubbles stuck to the glass and quite a steam of bubbles in the beer too.

Questions really are ; I know once you get two readings the same you are safe to bottle but is 1020 a high fg at which to do so? Has anyone else had similar experience with Diabolo or Brewferm kits? Is it right that they're still bubbling?

Cheers

[Marts]

If it's still bubbling at a continuous pace i'd be tempted to leave it a few days more. I don't think it'll come to any harm for being left and you may squeeze a bit more gravity out of it.

My experience with a glass hydrometer is that it's more useful for showing a trend and a rough gravity reading than relying on it too heavily.

[arturobandini]

Thanks for the reply! I was intending to bottle after ten days but I'll give it another look and test tomorrow and if the beer has less signs of action then I'll go ahead and bottle otherwise I may be tempted to leave it a few more days and gauge any improvements before I know for definite it's finished it's primary fermentation. Then it's onwards and upwards with the next kit.