Airlock stopped bubbling at 1.020

[Isambard]

My first brew: Bulldog badcat kit, has gone from vigorous fermentation activity in the first week, to almost nothing now at day 9. I'd be happy with that as primary fermentation over, except that my OG was 1.062 and I'm still at 1.020 now. It doesn't taste very sweet but isn't that high for final gravity?

Any advice very welcome.

 

[clibit]

A bit high yes. I'd leave it alone a few days and check again. It may well be still fermenting slowly.

 

[Twostage]

Depends on the yeast. You've got 68% attenuation at the moment which is ok for some yeasts. You've got about 5.5% abv, is that close to your expectation?

Personally I wouldn't worry about it and bottle/keg, which is what I did with my most recent porter, tastes great.

The only danger is the air introduced during bottling kick starts fermentation again but this will just make it more fizzy than expected.

 

[Twostage]

There you have brewing in a nutshell, leave it or bottle it. :smile:

 

[clibit]

Too early for me, leave til two weeks. It may drop more and will benefit from longer even if not. If it's not finished, bottling would leave to over carbonation.

 

[terrym]

Are you relying on your airlock bubbles to tell you if its finished? FV lids are notoriously leaky and if they haven't sealed properly will vent CO2 rather than it going through the airlock, especially when the fermentation has died down. Also have a peek inside the FV. Does it look like it's still going i.e. is it still bubbling gently?
You could try a gentle stirring to see if that gets things going again if it has really stuck, but make sure the spoon is sanitized of course and avoid stirring air into your brew which could spoil it.
Whatever you do leaving it for two weeks like others have suggested is sound advice, and you should of course check the gravity at the end on separate days to see if you have a stable reading which means that's it.

 

[Cwrw666]

My recent dry Irish stout AG brew stopped at about 1018 - which means it's only about 3.5% ABV, which is a little dissapointing. I bottled a few bottles and put the rest in a pressure barrel (so that if it started fermenting again, excess gas would simply blow out the pressure relief barrel. Well I'm drinking it now, and it didn't ferment any more except for the priming. Tastes ok (better than cans of Murphy's anyway) but a little lacking in "kick".
I don't know why it stopped at 1018, I tried adding amylase enzyme to break down any complex carbs but that had no effect. I'll try another batch in a few brews time to see if I have better luck with it.

 

[MyQul]

For a beer that big I'd leave it three weeks in the FV (I leave all my beers for 3 weeks anyway) and take a hydrometer after week two. The airlock bubbling is not the best indicator of fermentation as C02 can escape from under the lid unless you've got a completely tight seal. Your hydrometer is your best tool to determine fermentation

 

[Isambard]

Thanks all.

It actually started going again last night so maybe the temperature dipped but the cheapy plastic strip thermometer didn't pick it up? I'll leave it alone and then take another hydrometer reading at 2 weeks.

 

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

My first brew: Bulldog badcat kit, has gone from vigorous fermentation activity in the first week, to almost nothing now at day 9. I'd be happy with that as primary fermentation over, except that my OG was 1.062 and I'm still at 1.020 now. It doesn't taste very sweet but isn't that high for final gravity?

Any advice very welcome.

Quite often your brew will be happily fermenting away without any noticeable sign of it doing so. Primary fermentation can take anything up to 3 weeks to complete. I wouldn’t do anything until you reach a stable final gravity. Keep checking the gravity, if it keeps dropping it is still fermenting. I would maybe consider checking the temperature of your beer too. A sudden drop in temperature and your yeast will stop converting.