only bubbling in airlock every 1.5 ish mins. FG is good. But I am under the minimum range of 7-10 days. I have only gone about 5 days. Am I good to bottle??
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What is the FG? Do you have any time constraints that forces you to bottle so soon? – Philippe Nov 29 '15 at 19:05
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It's too soon to bottle.
If fermentation is not completely finished and you bottle, you risk having bottles exploding; loosing beer. It is no worth the risk.
Make sure the fermentation is complete before bottling. Take a gravity reading at the end fermentation, and if the gravity reading is steady for 2-3 days, it generally means it's done.
Waiting a little time before bottling (about a week) also helps to get better clarity, the yeast that is still in suspension will flocculate (fall at the bottom). If you bottle right away, you may still have yeast in suspension...
Take a look at this text for more information about flocculation : White Labs PDF document
Philippe
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More info about exploding bottles: http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/643/why-my-homebrewed-lager-beer-bottles-explode/645#645 – Philippe Nov 29 '15 at 19:25
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If eploding bottles leads only to loss of beer, one can consider himself lucky. – Mołot Dec 03 '15 at 14:38
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The time range is only an estimate it's ok to be a bit over or under, same for the predicted final gravity. The airlock is also only useful as an estimate, there could be plenty of activity going on while there isn't much visibly going on.
The only completely reliable method to know that fermentation is done, is that the gravity has stabilized. Leave it for another couple days and check again, if the final gravity hasn't changed then you're good to bottle.
BBS
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THanks bbs. Ill make the sure the FG is constant. Cheers!! Happy Brewing – HK Beer Maker Nov 30 '15 at 00:31
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If you really want to make sure that the yeast has fermented all of the wort, after the initial 5 days of fermentation raise the temp of the wort/beer to 70-72 to get the yeast fermenting any of the remaining sugars. At this point if the majority of the beer is already fermented you won't introduce any major off flavors from the yeast being in a warmer environment
bolnad
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