Newbie help

[Jason s]

Hi all. I'm a new brewer seeking some advice.

Ok so here goes.
This is my second kit. It's a festival razorback. I started the kit on the 16 July with a starting gravity of 1056. The fermentation started off well and carried on bubbling away quite nicely. I then added the hops on the 6th of August and the fermentation was still going well. On the 15th of august I took a hydrometer reading of 1012. The kit claims FG of 1005 so I have left to carry on fermenting. Today I have taken another reading 23rd august at 1010 and the airlock is still bubbling every minute or so. When I have taken readings I have always got the liquid I am testing to 21 C . So it's been around 5 weeks in the FV now and it's been sitting in the garage. I'm now worried this may be too long. I'm after some advice as to should I be patient or bottle it up now. Would another week or two be a good call.

I thank you all in advance for your help and advice.

Jason

 

[MmmBeer]

Firstly, welcome to the forum.

It seems very unusual for a beer still to be fermenting after 5 1/2 weeks, most are finished and ready to be bottled within a fortnight. I rarely get a brew that falls below 1.010, especially if it has a high OG, such as 1.056. To get from 1.056 to 1.005, the yeast would have to have a attenuation of (1.056-1.005)/0.056 = 91%, most common ale yeasts achieve 70-80%, so even getting to 1.010 would be good going.

Another possibility is that you have an infection with a wild yeast or bacteria, I would be tempted to take a sample of the beer and taste it. There are several common 'off flavours' that occur from time to time in beer, for example a wet cardboard taste would indicate oxidisation, a green apple taste can indicate problems with the yeast, vinegar or baby sick aroma could indicate infections.

If it doesn't taste good now, there's no point in going through all the hassle of bottling 40 pints of drainpour. If it does taste good, get it bottled, but just take it a little easy on the priming sugar.