Is FG 1.012 too high to bottle?

[carljbray]

Hi there,

My latest brew, after nearly 2 weeks fermenting, has reached 1.012 on todays hydrometer reading, was planning to bottle at the weekend, in 2 days time
fermentation seems to have stopped, with the airlock bubbling only intermittently now, so I don't see it dropping much further after all this time

1.012 is a bit high I think, I've never had one higher than 1.010 before, the kits normally say 1.010 or lower before considering fermentation complete
and a sample also seems to taste a little sweeter than usual, so maybe the sugar is not yet all fermented

on the other hand, this one I brewed with 1kg of brew enhancer, plus an additional 0.5kg dark spray malt, for taste and strength, so maybe this is why the higher FG and sweetness
Oddly, given the extra malt, the OG was only 1.0395, lower than I thought
This is a samsons yorkshire bitter kit, first time trying it

Should this be a cause for concern - meaning further yeast and time required? eg stuck fermentation, to avoid exploding bottles
or does this sound like it is good to go?

I will do another reading in two days time to make sure gravity hasn't changed at all, before bottling

Many thanks,
Carl

 

[Pjam]

When I first started 1.012 (from 1.040) was Ok but was not all it should be. You wont get bottle bombs, you might get a really nice beer! but nowadays I'd be looking for 1.008 - 1.006 from an OG of 1.040

 

[Banbeer]

I would definitely wait if it's still kicking out C02 through the airlock and reading 1.012/tasting sweet etc, go with your plan of waiting 2 days to check it again then. For what you added the OG was quite low and would give you 3.4% ABV at that OG?

 

[An Ankoù]

It depends on the recipe and the yeast. I'm bottling a brown ale made with brown and pale malts and fermented with S-04 and the FG's 1012. If it was a pale ale or a light lager done with US-05 or a lager yeast, I'd be looking for at least 1006.

 

[terrym]

According to BF calculator 1.8kg kit can plus the additional sugars if brewed to 23 litres will have given you an OG of 1.046. It can't be anything else. Your low OG reading may have been because the wort was not properly mixed. Anyway your current SG is 1.012 which gives an attenuation of 73% which is about right for most kit yeasts in my experience.
I would leave it two more days and if its the same go ahead and bottle without any further concern. But if its gone down a point or perhaps two leave it another two days before you retest.

 

[carljbray]

That's interesting about the wort maybe not being mixed properly, I thought I had done it thoroughly - but will look out for that in future - I must say I was surprised at seeing only 1.0395 at the start, (it was brewed to 23 litres)
The only thing I did differently to normal, was to put the dry malt in the FV first, and mixed that with the hot water, before putting in the liquid malt from the can after, and then mixing that in.
Previously I have done it the other way around, but when pouring dry malt into a steaming hot FV, I tended to find it clumps up in the bag and around the lid of the FV, due to the steam - so thought I'd try things a little differently - maybe that affected it.

 

[kelper]

I've seen kit brews that ferment very slowly at the end. I would certainly wait until the SG has been steady for THREE days. Why not leave it until the following weekend? Time is your friend.

 

[terrym]

As an afterthought if your brew enhancer had any maltodextrin in the mix as some enhancers do maltodextrin does not ferment and the FG will be higher than had it been fermentable.