Do I bottle or wait?

[murraynoble2000]

I am doing my 1st brew which is the Geordie Scottish Export kit. I started it 12 days ago. The instructions said that it should take about 7 days but could be longer and you should bottle when you get 2 readings at or below 1.005. My problem is that for the past 2 days it has stuck at 1.010. Do I wait longer or just bottle it?

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

How are you measuring gravity, and are you correcting if needed?

 

[Steveruch]

Give it three weeks and take a reading, although it's probably done at 1.010. Unfortunately for brewers the yeast never read the instructions.

 

[murraynoble2000]

I'm measuring gravity with a hydrometer, it's reading 1 in fresh water. So I'll just give a bit longer then. Thanks.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Okay, so you need to have your wort at the temp the hydrometer is calibrated for, or do a little calculation to correct it. It’s easy to forget that. I use a refractometer and the reading with alcohol always needs to be corrected.

 

[murraynoble2000]

So, I have to take a sample and let it cool to the same temperature as the water to get a true reading. Or warm up the water. I'll give that a go. Thanks.

 

[murraynoble2000]

I might be there then. I just tried water out of the hot tap and the hydrometer sunk to the bottom so hopefully if the sample's a bit cooler it'll make the difference. Cheers.

 

[Morri896]

Your hydrometer should have come with a chart to correct for temperature, also there are calculators if you know what temp it's calibrated for. Like others have said, it may be done. There are a lot of factors that go into how low it will get. The main thing is to make sure it is done before you bottle so you don't get bombs.

 

[RM-MN]

Do you have a black magic marker and a pen? If so, take the instructions and black out the section where it says to bottle when you get two reading at or below 1.005 and pen in "bottle when you get two readings that match when take a day or two apart and are near the expected FG. The yeast will quit when they can't eat any more of the sugars regardless of what your hydrometer shows.

 

[balrog]

I recommend using any hydrometer temperature correction calculator, available online many places, for example here. The hydrometer itself likely has the calibration temperature marked on the little paper scale that is inside the hydrometer itself.

All you do is take the temp of the sample, measure the SG with the hydrometer, then use the calibration temp value in the temperature correction calculator.

After all that, I recommend patience, which is the hardest thing to learn as a new brewer. Leave the beer alone, no opening and sampling and fussing and looking. You let in oxygen whenever you open the fermenter and that will affect flavor stability and shelf life negatively. Just. Let. It. Be. Very zen. Very Doris Day. What will be will be beer. Or something along those lines.

 

[MikeCo]

It won't hurt it to leave it another week. 1.005 is a pretty low FG; didi it have a lot of simple sugar in it?

 

[murraynoble2000]

Thanks for all the tips. When I looked there is a temp marked on it, and there was a chart that came with it. I maybe should read these things. I put a kilo of sugar in. I suppose the thing I need to learn most is the patience. Cheers.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

@murraynoble2000 yes patience is the one major ingredient that doesn’t come with the kit. We have all been there! Cheers!