Gravity at bottling/ Presidents Sierra APA

[Pavalijo]

I started this kit on 21 October - day 1. OG at 21c was 1.053. My hydrometer reads 1.00 in water.

The instructions say that ABV will be “up to 5.5%”, but that gravity should be “1.010 or less“ at bottling.

If I hit 1.010 then my ABV will be 5.64%.

Fermentation started very vigorously indeed within 12 hours. Temperature stayed at 20-21c throughout fermentation. It had almost stopped on day 11 when I added the citra hops (not after 5 days as per instructions) with the gravity at 1.014. The airlock bubbling went off the scale very quickly after adding hops and that lasted a couple of hours before slowing down, ceasing altogether after 24 hours or so.

On day 14, after no bubbling for 2 days, I transferred the fermenter to the shed. 2 days later on day 16 with the temperature at 10c I went to rack off to the bottling bucket. I took a gravity reading expecting to find 1.010, however it was sitting at 1.014 :- being 1.013 when adjusted for temperature.

This gives an ABV of 5.25%, a little below the “up to 5.5%”. And gravity is not “1.010 or less” as recommended in the instructions at bottling.

So - finally now my question - if this hasn’t fully finished and has 0.03 still to go, could this give me broken bottles or gushers if I add the supplied 150g of priming sugar? Or is that final 0.03 insignificant? I realise that the figures are not precise and my inclination is to bottle, but any thoughts would be appreciated.....

PS - I am happy to accept that my hydrometer reading skills could need honing, but when OG was read in the bucket before racking the surface was quite clear. I took the OG in a cylinder. But I would like to know what you think on the assumption that my figures are accurate

 

[Jim Brewster]

If it isnt changing after that many days then I'd be inclined to say it's finished fermenting.

The airlock bubbling when adding the dry hops might just be because of the hops providing a surface for CO2 bubbles to form, rather than fermentation

Not sure why there would be a difference in the final gravity prediction vs your actual, maybe there is some variation in the non-fermentables in the liquid extract between batches that would account for the higer reading.