duboman

Recipes 

Yes this is true but more like 1.020, not in the .30's

Are you sure you temperatures are correct and calibrated? If fermentation is too cold the yeast will quit on you.

You might want to try removing the primary from the chamber after active fermentation and let warm up a bit and gently rouse the yeast and see if you can get those last points.

In addition, are you going to secondary? If so, you need to verify FG first, if you are removing the beer off the yeast too soon the yeast may not fully attenuate as well.

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Nothing Left to do but smile and drink beer.....

The Commune Brewing Company-Perfecting the "art" of beer since 2010

Matteo57

Recipes 

Yes, all grain. Mash temps are correct. I aerate with pure 02, the disposable kind and an aerating stone thing from Morebeer.com for about a minute and then shake it up.

LKABrewer

Recipes 

When in doubt, try a forced-ferment test. On your next batch, take a quart of your wort, plenty of yeast, and lots of o2 and ferment it at room temperature (70+) as if it were a starter (a stir plate is best). When it is finished, measure the gravity of that sample.

If your forced ferment test finished much lower than your whole batch, then you have a fermentation problem (not enough yeast/02, bad temps, etc).

If your forced ferment test finishes about the same as your whole batch, then you have a hot-side problem (recipe, mash temp, etc.).

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Matteo57

Recipes 

Alright, will have to try that and see. Brewing another batch next week so I'll see what I come up with with the tester. Thanks!

JDFlow

Recipes 

My first 3 brews were LME and they all finished below what I expected except for an imperial stout I did before I knew I needed a starter for bigger beers. That stopped way short. I also brew 3 gallon batches so a smack pack is the perfect size for my fermentations.

duboman

Recipes 

Have you verified a smack pack alone is adequate by using a calculator? Not only is the batch size important but also the gravity and date on the pack which will reflect viability of yeast. You might be surprised to learn that you are still under pitching

__________________
Nothing Left to do but smile and drink beer.....

The Commune Brewing Company-Perfecting the "art" of beer since 2010

jwalk4

Recipes 

What would be the harm in just pitching a gram or two more yeast? If it tastes sweet, shouldn't the new yeast just continue where the old ones left off?

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Fermenter 1 - Amarillo Pale Ale
Fermenter 2 - Nothing
Bottle conditioning - Nothing
Drinking - Oatmeal Stout

duboman

Recipes 

If the cause of the problem was less fermentable wort than no, additional yeast will not just finish it up. In addition you would no be pitching yeast into an alcohol environment which would cause them to stress out. Some people would recommend adding champagne yeast or a small starter at full krausen to combat this although results will vary.

__________________
Nothing Left to do but smile and drink beer.....

The Commune Brewing Company-Perfecting the "art" of beer since 2010

jbaysurfer

Recipes 

I just changed from an Igloo MT to a direct fired MT and a couple of my batches mashed too high while I was dialing in the system. One of them stopped 10 pts short of estimated FG while the other was 8 pts short.

Mash temps was my first thought actually. It would explain the consistency of your results better then pretty much anything else. Are you using campden by any chance? When and how much?

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First Brew was thanksgiving 2011, I'm at 46 batches and counting, and ran out of room in my signature to list them all.

jwalk4

Recipes 

Thanks for the info!

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Fermenter 1 - Amarillo Pale Ale
Fermenter 2 - Nothing
Bottle conditioning - Nothing
Drinking - Oatmeal Stout