Can't hit FG on my last 4 Miidwest Kits.

[Nokie]

Like my intro post says, I took about a 4 year break from brewing. Now finally I've been able to dust off the ol' equipment and start making bubbles in the airlock again.
I had purchased 4 kits from Midwest and replaced equipment that needed it.
My problem is every kit I have done I can't get below 1.020 - 1.022 and it's driving me crazy.
I follow the instructions to a "T".
Steep @ 150
Boil for 60mins add my LME @30
Chill to 68 and pitch my US-05
Ferment at 70
I've tried the ones that have been in the bottle a little over 2 weeks and they taste like a decent extract beer.
I'm just trying to get this figured out before I go back to all grain.
Any help on what I'm overlooking would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RM-MN]

First let me say that you are not alone. Many brewers have trouble getting their extract beers to attenuate below 1.020. There are some things to try. First is pitch rate. While your packet of dry yeast contains enough cells to ferment your beer, if you do not rehydrate you may be killing up to 50% of them when you add them directly to the wort. Yeast can overcome this if you aerate your wort well but getting enough oxygen dissolved into the wort requires some work. You also can help the yeast by starting the ferment cooler and then bringing the temp up to the low 70's when the ferment slows down. (Note: Some people get a peachy note from US-05 if fermented too cool). Choosing the right extract may help too as some of it may have so many unfermentables that you simply cannot get it to ferment any lower than you report.

You mention that you will go back to all grain. Some of the difficulties you have will resolve themselves if you do.

 

[Revvy]

RM-MN nailed it, it's the "10-20 curse." Part of it has to do with the natural mailard reaction of both the production of and re-boiling of the wort. It produces a tad more unfermentables. Take RM's advice, that's pretty much all you can do.

 

[Nokie]

Thanks for the reply.
I should of went into more detail but didn't want a long drawn out post for my first post.
I did the Irish red and didn't hit my #'s so the second batch was the front porch ale. I rehydrated my yeast and still had no luck. The only thing I haven't been able to control is my temps. (Until I get a mini fridge for fermentation.)
But they've stayed pretty consistent.
My 3rd and 4th batches were 20 min boil kits.
I just wanted to see if it was me or something with the kits.
I dug my old recipe book out and even when I did extract before I always hit my numbers.
Now that I have the pipeline built up I think I'll be going back to AG