[hisham]

Greetings All,

I have 3.5 gallons of BIAB Brown Ale that has smoothly cruised down from 1.052 to 1.008 in 12 days (fermented w/ one pack saf05)
I have no plans to rack it into a secondary, or dry-hop. 
It tastes great, and is clear in the glass at sampling from the primary fermentor.
I'm currently bottling my homebrews, and would love to bottle this one tomorrow, as I will have ample time to do so.
My question is, what are the possible detriments to bottling after just 13 days? I've never considered bottling a beer at such an early age before, but this one seems to be telling me it's ready.
Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks & cheers!

-Hisham

[erockrph]

13 days isn't too soon if the FG is stable and there's no diacetyl/acetaldehyde in the beer. A beer that size could be done in 4 or 5 days, honestly. I generally package my normal gravity ales at the 2-week mark. Check the gravity one more time and taste the sample. If everything is good, then bottle away.

[hisham]

Thanks, Eric.
Yeah - no diacetyl/acet. present, I'll sample again tomorrow & more likely than not get busy bottling at that point.
For the past two years I've been going with the dogma of "2 weeks primary/2 weeks secondary", and am just now spanning out, and experimenting with longer or shorter times depending on the brew, so this advice is appreciated. Cheers

-Hisham 

[erockrph]

Think of it like this - you're still doing 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary. But your secondary is the bottle conditioning period.