What's your fermentation method?

If you take an FG reading several days apart and they read the same, fermentation is complete and you could proceed to whatever is scheduled next. Just let it sit approximately 2 weeks and then take your readings.

 

Depending on the style of beer I'm making I usually ferment around the recommended temperature range for about a week, then bum the temperature up a few degrees for a week, then cold crash for a week.

 

Since breaking my hydrometer a year or two ago, I haven't bothered with gravity readings. I ferment 5 gallon buckets for about two weeks, no secondary, keg, and then it conditions in the keg at basement temperature until there is room in the keeezer.

 

Final gravity is not when some beer hits an endpoint that is pre-determined by the recipe*. Final gravity is determined by the yeast. Even without the initial reading, you should check final gravity at least a couple times to make sure the yeast have finished fermenting. And taste those gravity samples. Yeast do more than just chew through sugars; they metabolize things that affect the taste of beer without appreciably influencing gravity readings. If something tastes off, you should give it some more time at fermentation temp or higher to give the yeast a chance to mop up.

*There may be some advanced brewing exceptions to this, where you might want to stop the yeast at some level of residual sugar by adding preservatives to stabilize the gravity. This is more common in wine and mead making, but usually accomplished by letting fermentation finish out and then back-sweetening. Letting the yeast finish helps mop up those off flavors. Frankly, most homebrewers have little in interest in doing anything of the sort for 99.9% of the beers they brew.

 

For a 'normal' beer, I let it sit three weeks in the fermenter. I don't bother monitoring the gravity - I can tell by the taste if it's done (in the sense that it's not badly under attenuated). If it's not done after three weeks, there's something wrong that's gonna need some fixing - rare, but not unheard of. Whenever I get around to it, I keg it, then let it age at room temp until there's room in the keezer (déjà vu!). No secondary. If I remembered to take an OG reading, fine. If I didn't, that's fine, too - I can always calculate it using a refractometer and hydrometer if I really, really want to know, though I usually don't care enough to bother.

 

Just because you didn't get an OG reading does not mean the FG reading(s) is/are worthless, and that you don't need to do them. Both the OG and FG are meaningful in different ways:

1. Using both readings you can compare them to the numbers that are predicted by your recipe so that you can determine if you are brewing this beer okay.
2. Using both readings you can estimate your alcohol amount (ABV).
3. Taking two readings a few days apart after you think the fermentation is complete will allow you to be sure that fermentation has stopped and that it is safe to bottle, assuming these readings are close to the predicted FG of your recipe.
4. If you did not come close to your recipe's predicted FG, then you could have a stuck fermentation regardless of how close your two FG readings are to each other, and it is potentially dangerous to bottle if you have a stuck fermentation.

So both readings are useful in different ways. Not taking the OG may be less meaningful than skipping the FG, so in your case, you're okay without it as long as the FG readings make sense.

 

Here's one more 'learning' thing ... how about maybe putting on a shirt?

 

No shirt, no shoes, NO DICE

 

Prince doesn't have to wear a shirt.

 

Rutt Roh!

 

Best laugh in the forum in a while!

 

I haven't ever used a hydrometer. I also don't do the charts and sciency stuff. I like to brew wild and wing it.

 

'Nuf said

 

I still can't tell if @willkevi is being serious or just trolling like a champ!

 

8 days? The yeast are probably cleaning and you are about another two to three weeks out from packaging. I'd surmise the gravity will be close but there will be another drop in about a week.
I really only use gravity as an idea, but I tend to go by taste as to when to pull the trigger. So even if the numbers are dead on, I go by taste.