Poor attenuation

[sparkyaber]

I have been having a really bad stretch of hard times brewing. I have had some sort of infection that I can not shake, and now this. I can not get my beers to finish in less than a month. (higher than expected FG) I will give more details on my latest two batches if I have to.
1: Kona pale ale clone from biermuncher
2: Aberdeen brown ale, also from biermuncher
My main question is: If I have a higher OG, will my FG finish higher also? I don't quite understand the chemistry behind this, and if it has been covered before, sorry, just point me in the right direction.

My Kona is sitting at 1.018 after starting at 1.056. It should be down to 1.014. Yeah, I know it is close, but it still took me 3 weeks to get there.
1/2 liter starter of White labs 029
Aberdeen is at 1.014 after starting at 1.044. Should be down to 1.007.
Again, pretty close, but man I was hoping for under 1.010.
1 L starter of Wyeast 1099.

I started both of these beers fairly cold (64-66) degrees. I them moved them to the warmer confines of my upstairs bedroom. (with heat added, I am getting about 72-74 degrees) I did rock the carboys to get the yeast resuspended.
One last note, I waited 5 weeks for my SWMBO slayer to finally get close to the predicted FG and this was with a 2 liter starter.
Any one have any ideas on how to increase my attenuation?

Thanks.

 

[TrojanMan]

Grain sugar extract is only 75-80% fermentable. If you're getting around 70% attenuation (which you are) then you're doing fairly good.


You can boost it up with a few techniques, though.

Extract or grain? You can adjust the mash cycle to get more easily fermentable sugars out the sparge. Lower temps and longer times is the general rule, but you will sacrifice body by doing so.

The Belgians and plenty of other brewers add refined sugars to the beer. Dextrose (corn sugar) is 100% fermentable, as is common table sugar (which is mostly sucrose). As long as you're not using sugar for more than 10% of your fermentables, it won't have a noticable character in the final beer. It will lighten the body and increase alcohol (plus whatever yeast character is produced).

Make sure you're getting good aeration. For 5-gal. batches, just dropping it into the carboy (say, though a funny) is enough, but it doesn't hurt to cap and shake before pitching.

Make sure you're pitching enough yeast. Homebrewers often underpitch. No matter what you're using (dry or liquid), culture it up for a day ahead of time. About 1.5 pints of starter should be 2 pints water, 3-4 ounces of DME (depending upon gravity of intended beer) with a pinch of hops just for sanitation. Boil 20 minutes, cool, and pitch your yeast into the starter. Don't use an airlock, just cover it with tinfoil. Don't worry, it'll stay sanitary as long as your environment isn't filthy. When you pitch the starter, be sure to give it a GOOD swirl to pick up any yeast that may have already sedimented out. This will also make your fermentation take off much faster as well so be aware that you might need a blow-off tube where you didn't before.


If your attenuation still isn't good enough, then a hardier yeast is the only solution.

Your numbers sound like they're just fine, though. A starter will improve your fermentation time and attenuation and if you're still not happy then you can mess around with sugar additions or even oxygen aeration.

 

[sparkyaber]

Well, I did not mention I do give it a healthy shot of O2 as well as a strainer on top of a funnel. I think it is getting enough O2, but maybe not?
I have been making starters for quite some time now, so I guess I will have to leave as is, thanks.