I have a Belgian Trappist that has been in the secondary for 6 weeks. According to hydrometer readings fermentation is done. But there is still airlock activity bubbling about every 2-3 minutes. I know it doesn’t hurt to leave it but I need to bottle it to make room for another batch. Should I wait till the airlock stops or just bottle it? Just don’t want any bottle bombs.
Airlock activity doesn’t indicate fermentation. If your gravity readings are consistent for a 3 days in a row, go ahead and bottle.
Six weeks is a very long time for yeast to be active in a beer. You either have outgassing due to a low pressure system coming through or warming of the beer, or you have something other than yeast active in there. Or perhaps you had the beer much too cold during fermentation and the yeast are just waking up again.
Take a gravity reading to see if it has hit FG, and take a taste to see if the flavor is right.
[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]Six weeks is a very long time for yeast to be active in a beer. You either have outgassing due to a low pressure system coming through or warming of the beer, or you have something other than yeast active in there. Or perhaps you had the beer much too cold during fermentation and the yeast are just waking up again.
Take a gravity reading to see if it has hit FG, and take a taste to see if the flavor is right.[/quote]
It was around 70 degrees the whole time. Check last week and a couple times since and FG has been reached. Tasted all three readings and it tastes and smells as it should. I’m just going to go ahead and bottle it.
