To bottle or not to bottle?

[Martibrew]

Hi folks,
I'm a relative newbie and only on my 6th ever brew! I decided to attempt to make some ginger beer with the hope to bottle it ahead of the spring/summer period.
OG was 1.044 and I pitched safale s-04 dry ale yeast hoping to convert most of the fermentables.
4 days in the fermentation appears to have stopped. It smells great. So I took a reading gravity now at 1.024.
I expected the gravity to be lower( my last brew IPA ended at 1.008).
Should I go ahead and bottle this brew or try some kind of restarter?
Many thanks
Martin

 

[31bb3]

10.24 seems high to me I'd be looking for 10.10 ish it may have slowed or stalled try giving it a shake to wake the yeasties up have you checked the calibration of your hydrometer

 

[jonnymorris]

Option 2. Give it a good stir, ensure the temp is up at 20-21degC, leave it a few days and hope you've pitched sufficient healthy yeast to do the job.
p.s. a final gravity of 1.000 would be a bit too thin, i.e. akin to water.

Edit: just re-read your post... 4 days in is way too early to worry let alone consider bottling. Leave it another week before checking and then do as above if it hasn't moved.

 

[Martibrew]

Thanks guys,
I went to re check the reading as I last checked it yesterday. It now appears to show 1.014 which is more what I was hoping. I gave it a stir as suggested and turned up the heat a little in that room. The beer temperature was at 16 .
I guess now I should check it again tomorrow and the next day and bottle only when the reading remains unchanged.
If it remained at 1.014 would this be a suitable reading at which to bottle?
Also, what would you recommend I use to prime in 500ml bottles?
Many thanks

 

[ushills]

Depends on what fermentables you used and the quantity, check it again tomorrow and if it's the same it is ready for bottling. However 10 to 14 days would be better.

 

[Martibrew]

Even if it is the same tomorrow would it still benefit from being left in the FV for 10-14 days.? I would worry that it would go off?

 

[IOMMick]

Even if it is the same tomorrow would it still benefit from being left in the FV for 10-14 days.? I would worry that it would go off?

It doesn't do any harm to leave it a bit longer and could do a lot of good if it is only slowly fermenting. My rule of thumb is now 2 weeks in FV in heat, then at least a week in the cold in the garage (I've no idea what my plans are for summer) as the cold (+ gravity) hardens the trub and makes it much easier to bottle every single drop of liquid without having excess **** in sucked into the bottles.

 

[Martibrew]

Thanks guys great feedback! I will check the hydrometer for a couple of days now and let it rest for a few days in the garage. Cheers
:thumb: