Stout ready to bittle?

[Morri896]

I have a stout with an og of 1.049. It's been in the fermenter for 6 days and I haven't had any airlock activity since day 3. I'm going to take a gravity reading a bit later today. If it's done would it be better to age it in the fermenter or bottle it and age in the bottles?

 

[RM-MN]

Leave it in the fermenter. Give the yeast plenty of time to clean up the byproducts and let as much of the trub and yeast settle out as you have patience for. If you bottle it now you will lose about 1/2 inch of beer when you pour trying to keep trub out of the glass.

 

[histo320]

I always keep my Stouts fermenting for 4 weeks. I find it had a much cleaner flavor profile then only 2 weeks.

 

[ncbrewer]

There's also a safety issue. If it's not really finished fermenting, it will finish in the bottles, with possible bottle bombs. For this reason alone, I would leave in the fermenter 2 - 3 weeks. Check gravity 2 - 3 days before bottling day and again on bottling day. If gravity is stable and at a reasonable FG level (in all probability it will be), then bottle. If it's still dropping, wait a few days and check again.

 

[Morri896]

Assuming it's at final gravity would bottling at two weeks be better or worse that 6-7 weeks? I almost got sent out of town today and it would have been about a month, that's something that can happen without notice from time to time for me.

 

[kh54s10]

With that style beer I don't think there is much difference between aging in bulk or aging in bottles. I think that bottling now is too soon but also that there is no reason to wait 4-6 weeks. On the other hand if you cannot bottle for 4-6 weeks that should not be any problem either.

After bottling it may take a while for the flavors to meld. I would expect a couple months. Try one periodically until you like the flavor. Then don't drink them all, the flavor might get even better. If you feel the flavor is degrading - finish them.