Does airlock activity always stop when FG is reached?

[Brett74]

Sitting in front of 5 kits, 4 of which have been fermenting for 14 days. My first brews these.
Some of them have had the same SG for 4 and the rest for 3 days. Does the fact that there SGs have flattened out mean fermentation is finished and I can think of bottling them, even though there is stil minor airlock activity? Or do I need to wait for all the bubbles to stop?

 

[Godsdog]

Nope,only way to make sure is by getting the same hydrometer readings on consecutive days

 

[pete71]

blimey 5 kits to bottle that's going to take some doing. If your readings are close to the final gravity and are the same for 3 days then your good to go. good luck with the bottling marathon.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Some FV's are airtight and a lot are not so as GD says the hydrometer is the only way to know for sure what is going on.

 

[dan125]

If you're not going to rack to a 2nry I'd be tempted to wait another week - then, to ease the bottling pain, do one batch at a time starting with the lowest ABV.
Good luck!
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[Brett74]

They are all already in secondary, I will start with the one that has been 4 days at the same, and then the next !! Hopefully the novelty of bottling doesn't wear of as quickly as you guys think it will!

 

[dan125]

They are all already in secondary, I will start with the one that has been 4 days at the same, and then the next !! Hopefully the novelty of bottling doesn't wear of as quickly as you guys think it will!

In that case I'd leave them another week then start with the lowest ABV.
Beer matures better/quicker in bulk and even if the FG is reached it will continue to improve. Stronger beers take longer to come good.
I've found its quite hard to resist temptation once its kegged/bottled but if its still in the 2ndry I can't be tempted.
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[ericmark]

That is fast, my Youngs Scottish Heavy I look at over 20 days 10 in first fermentor, and 10 in second but can stretch to 30 days. But the temperature will alter how long, in theroy the brew should be at either 60°F (15.6°C) or 20°C to use the hydrometer depending on the temperature the hydrometer is calibrated to. But most glass ones do not alter that much, depends of quality of glass used, some plastic types vary a lot with temperature, so in the main as long as the temperature is nearly the same non movement of s.g. means it has nearly finished fermenting and the conditioning part continues after bottling to some extent.

I use 2 litre pop bottles, and I will admit I have made mistakes and bottled too early, no bottle bombs, but have had more than half the glass full of foam and had to wait for it to subside before I can drink, with plastic bottles you can feel the pressure without opening the bottle, and since it has a screw cap you can release some of the pressure should you make an error. Although with a swing top bottle they will auto release the pressure should it get too high, so are auto correcting. However with a crimped on top once bottled you have no way to monitor what has happened.

So using plastic or swing top really no problem bottling even if you do get it wrong you can correct, but with the crimp type top I would leave it longer just to be sure.