I'm definately good with any gravity reading as long as the beer tastes great for the style. The thing is, the style I'm currently focused on is IPA and I tend to favor a low and dry malt profile to have the hops shine through. Which leads into a 2nd chronic issue I've had with my IPA brewing is a lack of hop flavor. I know that this is off the yeast/fermentation category but may relate to the yeast problem I've had with attenuation. With all your advice, I have a lot of things I can try! Thank you ALL!
I've been shying away from bittering because I prefer a less bitter IPA with high emphasis on flavor/aroma with little to show for it. Below is my last batch brewed that I recently kegged with a final gravity of 1.015, amber in color, mild hoppiness for IPA standards:
Steep: 4.2% carapils
4.2% caramel 20
60 minutes: 82% Pilsner LME
10 min: 1 oz simcoe
7 min: 1 oz simcoe
5 min: 1 oz simcoe
2 min: 1 oz simcoe, 1 oz cascade
0 min: 2 oz centennial, 1 oz cascade
0 min: 9.6% corn sugar
cooled over 15-20 minutes with wort chiller
aerated + pitched WLP 001 (2L stepped up decanted starter)
fermented at 68-69 degrees
Dry hopped 10 days 2oz simcoe
Dry hopped 5 days 1oz cascade, 1oz centennial
kegged
Solutions
-Will use all this advice to help with the FG (breiss pils DME over LME, 2-row grain low temp mini mash, increase simple sugars a bit etc.)
-buying a hopback, plate chiller, pump
-FWH for smooth mild bitterness
-might use 50% softer water (distilled)
Thanks again everyone!