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It's a simple US-05 extract batch. OG was 1.063 and I'm currently on 1.016 where projected FG was 1.012. Gravity has been stable for three days. It's also absolutely delicious so I'd gladly bottle it now, I'm just a bit concerned about the possibility of bottle bombs?

Over the past few days I've tried rousing the yeast by swirling a little and upping the temps to like 21c/70f, but it hasn't done anything to the gravity so it seems to have properly stopped...

The only other thing I can think of is the fact that I steeped 0.5kg of Crystal for like 20 minutes at a slightly higher temperature than is usual. It got up to like 90c/194f. Could this have caused production of unfermentable sugars which elevated the final FG?

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  • Possible duplicate of Stalled Fermentation to Bottling
    – brewchez
    Apr 14, 2016 at 11:14
  • I think there are enough unique factors here to set mine apart from the possible duplicate... Mainly the fact that it's much closer to FG. The question of "should I bottle" when it's 4 points away from FG is very different than "should I bottle" when it's 17 points away.
    – Pancakes
    Apr 14, 2016 at 21:33

1 Answer 1

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0.004 difference is also 1 Blg difference, to say it in units I know. That's pretty big here. At the same time, it's also pretty possible your fermentation has finished.

If in doubt, I would try fast fermentation test. Take generous amount of baker's yeast, fresh. Like, 1/5 cup. Fill the rest of cup with your beer, stir, put in dry warm place and wait a day or two. Then decant it from yeast and see if gravity has changed. If yes, then your beer has stalled fermentation and you should try to restart it. If no, it is as fermented as it is going to be. Warning: only works reliable under about 7% ABV.

After the things you have tried, I would assume it is as finished as possible.

As for steeping, raising temperature should not change fermentability much. It's not mashing. Proportions of sugars are set in the malting house. Light crystal have pretty much of fermentables, dark crystal next to none. Only at short-time steep it matters, because it speeds up sugar extraction. Both fermentables and unfermentables.

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  • Thanks, I'm going to try raising temperatures for another day or so and giving it another light swirl before trying that. Obviously since I'm a pretty new brewer I'm super paranoid I'm introducing an infection every time I draw a sample... Also since this is the first beer I've brewed which I actually enjoy the taste of it's like a precious jewel. Really worried I'll screw it up somehow...
    – Pancakes
    Apr 14, 2016 at 9:06
  • @brewchez not everyone can up vote
    – Mołot
    Apr 14, 2016 at 15:00
  • But they can accept? That's interesting.
    – brewchez
    Apr 14, 2016 at 20:51
  • @brewchez everyone can accept, but upvote is a privilege. Read this, and ask on meta if needed.
    – Mołot
    Apr 14, 2016 at 21:13
  • I totally would vote it up if I could...
    – Pancakes
    Apr 14, 2016 at 21:30

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