oatmeal stout ?

I just bottled my first AG today. It was an oatmeal stout. OG was 1.056 (had to add 1.7 lbs DME due to poor efficiency). It sat in the primary for 2 weeks before bottling. My OG reading last pm and today was 1.040. The FG was supposed to be 1.016. I used Wyeast 1968 London ESB and did a starter. After cooling the wort I transferred 2.5 gallons into 2 carboys and rocked each carboy for 5 minutes before combining both into a 6.5 gallon carboy. I mainly do this because my days of carrying 5 gallons of wort in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy down the stairs into the basement are over. I did add a yeast nutrient at beginning of boil. For water I used my very hard tap water. Within 6 hours there was vigorous fermentation. I love that sound. I did taste it and thought it was good, there was a good strong coffee taste and it did not smell or taste contaminated. Here are my questions:
1) How often should I be checking SG?
2) If something like this happens again should I repitch and leave it alone for a week?
3) If I repitch should I just throw in a smack pack after smacking it and letting it sit out for several hours or should I do another starter?
4) Is it possible my refractometer is off or I am reading it wrong? Can anyone suggest a link with directions for mixing measured amounts of sugar and distilled water together to obtain a known SG and match it against my refractometer (I could probably do the math and figure this out myself but I am lazy)?

Thank you in advance for answering my questions. This website is great and I have learned a ton from it.
Mike

You can't take the reading at face value for FG. Alcohol affects the reading. I believe there is a formula for correcting this though. Try searching for alcohol refractometer correction.

jmo88 said:

You can't take the reading at face value for FG. Alcohol affects the reading. I believe there is a formula for correcting this though. Try searching for alcohol refractometer correction.

Click to expand...

Yes, it sounds like the refractometer hasn't been corrected for the alcohol content. Did you take a FG reading with your hydrometer?

http://onebeer.net/refractometer.shtml

That should help out with the FG calculation, 1.040 has to be wrong, especially if it tastes good

after correction my FG is acutally 1.029
not stellar but a lot better than 1.040

has anyone had a similar experience with Wyeast London ESB? I was reading in a catalong that it is highly flocculant and may require extra aeration. If I do this recipie again I may get an oxygen stone.

Thank You
Mike