[DW]

I know this question has been asked a thousand times, but my 1.085 bock was supposed to go to 1.02, and is stuck at 1.03.  been on the yeast for about a month.  i had turned the temp up to 57.  is there any hope?  i did use extract with 1 pound pilsner malt/specialty grains.........

[HoosierBrew]

Many extracts (except for the palest Briess) are nowhere near as fermentable as all grain, so this could be the main issue. Turning up to 57 is a good start, but I would move the fermenter into a room temp room (ie., 68-75F) - the warmer temp and moving of the fermenter will rouse the yeast up into suspension a bit and MAYBE get the yeast to eat a few points. You should post your recipe details.

[dmtaylor]

Might be the yeast's fault.  What yeast did you use?

[DW]

Might be the yeast's fault.  What yeast did you use?

Yeast Bavarian Lager.  The recipe is the Dopplebock (Mr Maltinator) from "Brewing Classic Styles" .

[dmtaylor]

There's a combination of several things going on here.

1) Jamil and John Palmer aren't perfect.  They screwed up.

2) Two pounds of CaraMunich is kind of a lot for an extract beer.

3) Like Hoosier said, extracts often don't ferment down very well.  A lot of times the pilsner extract will ferment out fine, but those specialty extracts such as the Munich extract might not.

4) The yeast you used is only capable of about 73-75% attenuation, so the best attenuation you probably could have expected is about 1.023 or maybe 1.022 at best.

I would have jacked up the partial-mash pilsner malt, added 1-1.5 lb table sugar in place of some extract, and used distilled water (you didn't specify your water).  All of these things would have guaranteed a lower FG as well as a better tasting beer.  See all my generic guidance for extract brewing here, it might help you out for next time: