I'm in the middle of my first batch, its been in the fermenter for 10 days.
Bubbles were less than one a minute so I opened it up to take a hydrometer
reading. there was layer of foam on the top. Is this normal? I thought
all that sinks to the bottom?... (my hydrometer reading was 12, which is
within the range suggested by my kit). Now, it's back to bubbling once
every 20 seconds. Does this all sound normal and what are the chances I
could bottle on Saturday? (three days after taking the reading)

"extraone" <extraone@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:vgpppc5t40no10@corp.supernews.com...[color=blue]
>
> I'm in the middle of my first batch, its been in the fermenter for 10[/color]
days.[color=blue]
> Bubbles were less than one a minute so I opened it up to take a hydrometer
> reading. there was layer of foam on the top. Is this normal? I thought
> all that sinks to the bottom?... (my hydrometer reading was 12, which is
> within the range suggested by my kit). Now, it's back to bubbling once
> every 20 seconds. Does this all sound normal and what are the chances I
> could bottle on Saturday? (three days after taking the reading)
>
>[/color]

This is perfectly normal. A good practice would be to check your FG over a
few days to make sure fermentation has stopped. Since you have hit the FG
listed by the kit, you are good to bottle.