[neuse]

I seriously doubt it is hop creep

Probably right, but I would raise the temp back up to at least 73 anyway. If hop creep, it will help. If not hop creep, then it's not finished, and higher temp will help. It's too late to get off flavors from raising to 73.

What would lead you to conclude it's not finished?

It dropped from 1.012 to 1.011. Until it stops dropping, I figure it's not finished. Actually, if hop creep is responsible, it's still not finished.

That is well within the margin of measurement error.  Virtually meaningless.

It's not much difference, I agree. I might be overconfident about accuracy since I use a narrow range bottling hydrometer. But I believe a standard hydrometer can pick up that difference, when strictly comparing two samples, given the same person reading it and the same beer being measured, and the person is skilled at taking the readings. But I'll grant that it may be a stretch. If there's been no change in gravity, my comment is totally irrelevant.

[denny]

I seriously doubt it is hop creep

Probably right, but I would raise the temp back up to at least 73 anyway. If hop creep, it will help. If not hop creep, then it's not finished, and higher temp will help. It's too late to get off flavors from raising to 73.

What would lead you to conclude it's not finished?

It dropped from 1.012 to 1.011. Until it stops dropping, I figure it's not finished. Actually, if hop creep is responsible, it's still not finished.

That is well within the margin of measurement error.  Virtually meaningless.

It's not much difference, I agree. I might be overconfident about accuracy since I use a narrow range bottling hydrometer. But I believe a standard hydrometer can pick up that difference, when strictly comparing two samples, given the same person reading it and the same beer being measured, and the person is skilled at taking the readings. But I'll grant that it may be a stretch. If there's been no change in gravity, my comment is totally irrelevant.

a couple bubbles on the hydrometer can make that kind of difference.  Not to mention eyesight. I don't consider 1 point to be a difference.

[Jaimie_h]

I seriously doubt it is hop creep

Well, you were right, it wasn't hop creep. Still bubbling merrily along, S.G. is now 1.009 and it is full of little particles and gunk and tastes nothing like what it did a few days ago. The only question now is what the infecting organism is.

*sigh* and it was tasting so promising...

Jaimie

[kramerog]

I am firmly in the camp of dry hopping during active fermentation. Opening the fermenter after fermentation is done introduces too much oxygen for hoppy beers, IME. Also you never notice hop creep.

[neuse]

I seriously doubt it is hop creep

Probably right, but I would raise the temp back up to at least 73 anyway. If hop creep, it will help. If not hop creep, then it's not finished, and higher temp will help. It's too late to get off flavors from raising to 73.

What would lead you to conclude it's not finished?

It dropped from 1.012 to 1.011. Until it stops dropping, I figure it's not finished. Actually, if hop creep is responsible, it's still not finished.

That is well within the margin of measurement error.  Virtually meaningless.

It's not much difference, I agree. I might be overconfident about accuracy since I use a narrow range bottling hydrometer. But I believe a standard hydrometer can pick up that difference, when strictly comparing two samples, given the same person reading it and the same beer being measured, and the person is skilled at taking the readings. But I'll grant that it may be a stretch. If there's been no change in gravity, my comment is totally irrelevant.

a couple bubbles on the hydrometer can make that kind of difference.  Not to mention eyesight. I don't consider 1 point to be a difference.

Denny - I don't mean to be argumentative, but I feel that I should share my experience with gravity samples. I take a sample 3 days before bottling day. Then on bottling day I take a sample. With the temperature correction, they are normally within .0003 or less of being the same. I do use a narrow range bottling hydrometer, so that helps with reading the hydrometer. But it gives me confidence that the sampling, handling, and degassing can be done repeatably. Eyesight is another story. I absolutely don't trust my readings to be accurate to that degree, but I do trust them to be repeatable.

[KellerBrauer]

Getting rid of the yeast is not the best thing to do, in my opinion.  There is negligible adverse effect to keeping the beer on the yeast.  Fears about yeast autolysis are overblown and usually take several months to occur.  Keeping the beer on the yeast ensures there are more live yeast cells available who are able to eat the diacetyl (if any) and reabsorb sulfur or other off-flavors (if any), besides more yeast to complete the fermentation of sugars to reach your final final gravity.

THIS

Actually, I typically leave the beer in the fermentation chamber for several days after fermentation is complete.  In that time I typically raise the temperature a few degrees.  That drives off any diacetyl.  Also, there’s still enough yeast in suspension after I rack to the clearing/bottling bucket to clean up any unwanted compounds.  I’ll typically leave it the bottling/clearing bucket for a few days before bottling.  I’ve followed this practice for years and, for me, it works.