Gravity reading leffe blonde clone ... help

[Drewy36]

Hey Guys,

Doing my second ever home brew with a leffe blonde clone from Australian home brew. Opening gravity was 1070 fermentation has stopped now 4 days later gravity reading is 1020. Is this too high to bottle ? Plan is to take a reading for next few days if it's stable I will bottle it. What are people's thoughts ? i calculated the abv at approx 6.7%

 

[Brewnicorn]

Hey Drewy36. Good work getting stuck in. I would think given the range travelled it wouldn't be quite ready for the bottle. 4 days is a bit too quick. Unless there's a reason with Leffe to get it bottled I'd say leave it alone for at least another week and then do your final gravity readings/confirmation readings. I'd say you'll get a little below 1020 but I've never seen an OG at 1070. I'm sure lots of folks will chime in with advice, but I'd say leave it a while. If the final gravity is around 1020 be mindful not to bottle with too much sugar/Dex/drops. Bottle bombs would be a risk.
Good luck and keep an eye on this thread for advice from the experts!
Cheers
brewnicorn

 

[mr_wibble]

Drewy36 - What is the expected Final Gravity (FG) in the recipe ?

I think 1.020 is a bit high for a Leffe Blonde, other Leffe clone recipes are looking for a FG of around 1.014.

Four days in not a whole lot of fermentation time, please give it at least a few more days.
I generally (nearly always) leave it in the fermenter for 2 weeks. Even if the gravity has stopped falling, at the end of fermentation important stuff is still going on:

Please read: https://byo.com/mead/item/635-fermentation-time-line
and: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/fermentation/secondary-or-conditioning-phase

But the gist of it is:

"Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur."

 

[Digga]

I think from the way I read it is that fermentation has now stopped and has been constant on 1020 for 4 days.
It's hard to say if 1020 is supposed to be the end not knowing how much spec grains maltodextrin or the alike that you have added. If you can post the recipe it would help. I did have one k&k finish high at 1020 and was fine think it was sugars from all the spec grains that went into it. Even through more yeast at it and nothing, no movement at all. Could be done.