Will fermenting at correct temps cause a beer to finish lower?

So after a year of brewing I finally got some temp control going on for fermenting (waaaay late to the party I know, but at least I'm finally here). All of my previous beers all finished in the 1.016+ range.

Yesterday I racked my first temp controlled beer (Ed's Pale Ale) to the secondary for clearing and took a FG reading. It was 1.012! I used the same water & same methods (except controlling the ferment temp). This is probably my 3rd or 4th time using Nottingham yeast even. For whatever reason this brew finally finished close to where it supposed to be.

The only difference between this batch and the other 14+ batches I've done, is this one was temp controlled during the fermenting, which brings me to my question.

Aside from off-flavors, does fermenting too warm somehow hurt the yeasties to where they don't finish?

Side note: The vast majority of my previous beers tasted fine, some were even great, but an experienced mouth (like those at my brew club) could tell I wasn't controlling my temps.

Side note #2: My uncontrolled fermenting temp was around 70-72F ambient temp so the brew was probably at 75-77F

There are a lot of other variables here.

1. Different recipes finish different (more crystal malts and non-fermentables = higher FG)
2. Different batch volumes, maybe one batch was actually 4.85 gal and another was 5.15 gal
3. The temp of the beer when you take the hydrometer readings. If one was 65F and another was 72F when you took the readings, that makes a difference.

As long as the yeast is in it's fermentation temp range during the fermentation it should do its thing!

differences in attenuation are more indicative of your mash temps. If you mashed at a bit lower than normal you will have a more fermentable wort.

I think it's more important to think about the fermentation temperature profile (over time) than just the ambient temp. As the beer is fermenting, it's releasing heat, which can only be scavenged away so fast. The heat accelerates the fermentation, the yeast use up the easy sugars, then slow down. The beer cools, the yeast catch a chill and shut down.

If you actively warm up the beer as the yeast are running out of food, they'll keep chomping instead of putting on furs and hibernating.

So keep the beer at a constant (or rising) temp, and raise slightly at the end to get good attenuation. This can also make a beer too clean and dry if you're going for a more interesting ferment character like a lot of English ales.

Okay so this makes more sense now. This was my second AG brew. The other AG I did was an Oatmeal Stout which natural finish a bit higher due to non-fermentable ingredients. This Pale Ale was the first non-extract kit I have done that doesn't contain non-fermentable ingredients. I'm thinking maybe that AG kits just finish better then extract kits do.

GreenDragon said:

Okay so this makes more sense now. This was my second AG brew. The other AG I did was an Oatmeal Stout which natural finish a bit higher due to non-fermentable ingredients. This Pale Ale was the first non-extract kit I have done that doesn't contain non-fermentable ingredients. I'm thinking maybe that AG kits just finish better then extract kits do.

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From what I've seen I will have to agree. My partial mash recipes are finishing lower than the similar gravity extract kits I started brewing with. Hitting your mash temps just right makes a difference. If you mash at 152F you will have more ferment-able sugars than if you mash at 158F.

GreenDragon said:

Okay so this makes more sense now. This was my second AG brew. The other AG I did was an Oatmeal Stout which natural finish a bit higher due to non-fermentable ingredients. This Pale Ale was the first non-extract kit I have done that doesn't contain non-fermentable ingredients. I'm thinking maybe that AG kits just finish better then extract kits do.

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This is it. Depending on the quality of the extract, they will usually end up at a higher FG. Concentrating the wort, also concentrates non-fermentables.