My IPA only got 60% attenuation

After a week of fermentation at a consistent 70 degrees (surrounded by water) I only got 60% attenuation using WLP001. My gravity is 1.029 and should be around 1.015ish. My OG was 1.073. I pitched a liter starter, but while I was brewing on a hot day my starter got up to about 85-90 degrees before I pitched it into my 72 degree wort. Could that be a problem or should I just try heating up my fermenter to 75 or so? Any suggestions?

How long has it been at .029? Is that for a few days now? What was your mash temps?

Give it another week. How do you know what the FG should be, did you do the fast ferment test? Maybe you had too much crystal in there? Without a recipe, its difficult to give advice.

tally350z said:

How long has it been at .029? Is that for a few days now? What was your mash temps?

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It was first measurement, but it has been inactive for about 4 days.

onthekeg said:

Give it another week. How do you know what the FG should be, did you do the fast ferment test? Maybe you had too much crystal in there? Without a recipe, its difficult to give advice.

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Because I have brewed this recipe before. Grain bill is :
12 lbs pale
1lb crystal 40
1lb crystal 15
1lb Munich

rrayriver said:

It was first measurement, but it has been inactive for about 4 days.

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I mashed at 160 for a sweeter finish like Lagunitas.

2# of crystal and 160 mash temp, i really cant see it getting much lower than that. That would leave alot of unfermentables in the wort.

Agree with Billybrewer09. 160 is really high. I typically mash at higher temperatures myself, but I find 156 gives me the unfermentables I need to help balance out a lot of hops, and give the beer a nice creamy mouthfeel.

Considering he's brewed this recipe before, I'm sure he can see it getting lower than 1.029. 1.029 is a very high FG for WLP001. The amount of crystal isn't that high and it was AG, so I would definitely think this is a 1.015 FG beer.

The starter temp could have affected yeast health. Also, a 1 liter starter doesn't sound like much for a 1.073 beer.