Bartolo

Recipes 

I've done two brews lately. One is a Porter and one is an Amber. The Porter was done with a liquid Ale Yeast, and I did a starter. The Amber was done from a kit and I used the dried yeast (after I rehydrated it). With both of these beers I cant get the final gravity down to where the recipes say they should. I'm still .005 too high. For example the Porter recipe says that the finishing gravity should be 1.015, and I'm only getting to 1.020.
Is there anything I can do at this stage to get more fermenation and higher alcohol?
if not, what should I do differently next time?

Yuri_Rage

Recipes 

How long has it been?

At what temperature are you fermenting it?

I'm guessing that the FG will go a bit lower than 1.020 unless you added a lot of specialty grains or did a partial mash and didn't control the temperature well.

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Sir Humpsalot

Recipes 

Don't mess with it. Just learn your lessons for next time and enjoy your tasty brew!

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In Process: Mango Beer, Homebrewers Pale Ale
Bottled/Kegged:Spicy Light Rye, Rice-adjunct Pale Ale, Mild Bourbon Porter, Roasty Stout, Basic Light Mead, Bourbon County Stout Clone
Up Next: Berlinerweiss, Chocolate Raspberry Ale, and American IPA

Bartolo

Recipes 

It's been 6 days for the Amber. The FG of the Amber is supposed to reach 1.12. It's at 1.020.
It's been 14 days for the Porter, which is supposed to reach 1.015. It's at 1.020. They've both been fermenting at approx 65 degrees the whole time.

Yuri_Rage

Recipes 

The amber probably needs some more time.

The porter is probably done, but I'd let it sit for another week or two before bottling. Just make sure the SG is stable for a few days before you decide to bottle.

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DuPuma

Recipes 

What is the lesson?

If you used LME, you might be running into some unfermentable sugars. I've had better success getting the FG down with DME than with LME.

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Yuri_Rage

Recipes 

So far, there is no lesson to be learned in this thread except patience. If Bartolo posts his recipes and procedures, we can help him draw some more conclusions.

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avidhomebrewer

Recipes 

If you haven't done so, rack to secondary and let it sit for about 2 or so weeks and see where that gets you, based on gravity readings.