Enough yeast for bottling?

I brewed a double IPA with an OG:1.070. I let it ferment in the primary for 11 days and the secondary for 7 days. I forgot to take the gravity before transferring in the secondary carboy. Should I be safe to bottle? and if so should there be enough yeast? I made a starter with Safale S-05 in the primary.

The airlock hasn't really bubbled on the secondary the whole week. There does seem to be only about 4.5 g of beer in a 5 g carboy. So I thought there might just be too much headspace.

Thanks!

Check the gravity today, then again in 2 days. If it hasn't changed you're safe to bottle. And yes, there is plenty of yeast to bottle.

If you made a starter with S-05 you have more than enough yeast for bottling. If I may make a suggestion; I would go 3 weeks in the primary. This allows the yeast to clean itself up as well as ferment the beer. Then into the secondary for dry hopping. If no dry hops just leave it in the primary.

You should always have enough yeast in suspension to bottle. Even if it's gone dormant, it will wake up with all the activity of bottling and adding priming sugar. Searching around on this forum, you'll see the general concensus is pretty forceful that adding more yeast before bottling could be a very bad thing.

But on to the more important point. What do you mean by "safe to bottle?" If you're wondering if fermentation is done, the only way to know is to take a gravity reading and see if it's close to your target (I don't know if there's an official list of top pieces of advice on HBT, but this is one I see often so it would be high on the list). 18 days might be enough, but maybe wait an extra week or two just to be sure. If your gravity reading is higher than you expect, try to rouse the yeast a little or move the carboy to a warmer spot for a while. The yeast can still be busy even if you don't see bubbling in the airlock (that's another one of those things on the list). Good luck and let us know what you get for the gravity reading.

Ok I checked the gravity and it is at 1.012. I guess I'll check it in a couple days then and see where it stands. That seems pretty low to me. Do beers typically go much lower? I assume it just depends on how much yeast and how healthy the yeast is. I did add yeast nutrient to the yeast to empower them. Thanks for the info!

bsig83 said:

Ok I checked the gravity and it is at 1.012. I guess I'll check it in a couple days then and see where it stands. That seems pretty low to me. Do beers typically go much lower? I assume it just depends on how much yeast and how healthy the yeast is. I did add yeast nutrient to the yeast to empower them. Thanks for the info!

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1.012 is a good FG. The lowest I have had personally was a FG of 1.008

mrrshotshot said:

1.012 is a good FG. The lowest I have had personally was a FG of 1.008

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^^^ damn straight!! my lowest is 1.010

dozer5454 said:

If you made a starter with S-05 you have more than enough yeast for bottling. If I may make a suggestion; I would go 3 weeks in the primary. This allows the yeast to clean itself up as well as ferment the beer. Then into the secondary for dry hopping. If no dry hops just leave it in the primary.

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There is really no need to rack to secondary to dry hop. I dry hop in the primary, usually after the ale has been in the fermentor for three weeks. I leave the dry hops in for five to seven days and then either keg or bottle.