Hydro reading on day 11.....question

I can read the hydro, I can do the math...but I am lost as to what it is supposed to tell you if you have no prior knowledge of where you should be.
Brewing my 2nd beer, NB's Honey Brown Ale.
It is day 11 and everything has looked perfect so far.
I decided to take a hydro today. The OG for this beer is 1050, I measured 1008...so the ABV at this point is 5.5%.
Sooo...I hate that NB doesn't tell you what the ABV should be or what your FG should be.
So what does this reading tell me? I am not about to bottle this early obviously, but it would seem this is about what the FG should be...is it normal to have finished FG at this point?

Thank you for your comments.

IMO, most low OG beers are near complete at that point. Most of my beers get a 1 week primary, 1 week secondary(dry hop) and then I bottle. Most people will argue that's not a good practice..but my beers keep turning out excellent.

I bet if you throw your grain bill on here, someone will be nice enough to put it into beersmith and tell you what your FG should be

iamwhatiseem said:

...is it normal to have finished FG at this point?

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On a 1.050 beer, yes. Take another reading in a few days. If it doesn't change, you're good to do go. You could let it condition a little longer in the primary fermenter, or bottle. Your choice.

If you take another reading in a couple days and the gravity is the same, then you know it is done fermenting.

Other than that you use the readings to calculate alcohol.

Thanks guys...and cluckk...that is a great avatar! Love it.
Ok so low OG beers...I guess i need to read more, so this might sound like a dumb question, keep in mind I am a newb...so Low OG beer = low ABV beer? So a low OG requires less fermentation/conditioning time?
I would argue with that...my first beer was Caribou Slobber, after bottle conditioning for weeks now - it has definitely improved - big time.

My understanding is that a low OG would correlate with less ABV, and less time for fermentation as there is less work for the yeast to do. However, this does not necessarily reflect conditioning. Longer conditioning times let the yeast clean up some by products, but the fermentation stage is over.

So how long does yeast stay alive in beer?

iamwhatiseem said:

So how long does yeast stay alive in beer?

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Unless you kill the yeast by boiling it it is essentially always alive, at least a percentage of the cells but once they are done consuming all available food they drop out (flocculate) and are no longer active. When introduced more food they go back to work-great little organisms they are

iamwhatiseem said:

Low OG beer = low ABV beer?

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That depends on the Final Gravity as well. An OG of 1.041 and a FG of 1.008 (difference is .033) will have higher ABV than an OG of 1.050 and on FG of 1.019 (difference of .031).

ABV percentage is 131*(OG - FG).

Now what determines F.G? I'm far too much a newb to have any idea but I'm really curious.

Of course low OG means a lower upper limit to ABV (1.041 means *potential* alcohol of 131*.041 = 5.371% *if* every single molecule of sugar is converted and your final gravity is 1.000; whereas 1.09 OG would mean an upper limit potential alcohol of .09 * 131 = 11.79 percent; An OG of 1.09 and a final FG of 1.02 is a difference of .07 and an ABV of .07 * 131 - = 9.59 which is higher than *anything* an OG of 1.041 could ever possibly acheive no matter how low its final gravity is.)