Beer Forum

So I made an IPA, overshot my starting gravity, which came out at 1.084. Pitched WLP001 (from a starter). It's been 20 days and the airlock is still bubbling about every 90 seconds. Gravity readings (3 days in a row) have stabilized at 1.020. Should I go ahead and keg, or let it sit in the primary until all airlock activity stops? It's still fairly cloudy, but seems to be clearing a little each day.

I would say wait it out brotha. If you can, bump the fermentation temp a couple of degrees and see if you can keep drying it out a bit.

Once you get up to 26-28 days you need to be concerned about getting the beer off of your yeast cake... at that point you might want to rack to a secondary if there is still significant airlock activity (and if it hasn't cleared up entirely), or just keg it up.

How do your samples taste? clean? sweet? just right? infected? I might base my move off of the samples taste at this point as well, because you're at approx. 75-76% ADF, which is decent (but definitely not maxing the potential) for wlp001.

It's a little sweet, a little yeasty, and somewhat phenolic. But it's definitely drinkable.

I'd try to see if you can squeeze a few more points outta it. Let 'er rip.

You are at 74% attenuation so you are close. You may want to kick the temperature up to 70 degrees for a few days to see if it drops any more. If you start getting too worried about leaving it on the yeast for over a month, go ahead and rack it to a keg. Give it just enough gas to seal the lid, but leave the keg at room temperature for a week or so. This week at room temperature is also the perfect time to do your dry hopping if you go by the info in last Sunday's show.

Wayne

What was the grain bill?
I usually get 77% attenuation on my IPA, pale ales made from 2 row.

I'd raise the temp to 72 and shake the carboy to see if you could squeeze a bit more out of it.

Unless you like it now.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I've bumped the temp up a few degrees, will give it a light swirl and let you know what happens. Clink a glass to all the helpful homebrewers.