[chezteth]

Are you taking the final gravity readings with a Hydrometer or a refractometer? If you are using a refractometer and not using an adjustment calculator that could explain the high readings.

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[hazefodaze29]

Just a little update for those who are interested. I am fortunate to have a smaller chest freezer (roughly 5cb ft) for cold crashing and hopefully lagering soon) and a larger 8footer. With that, I have to Ink bird temp controllers. One of them I purchased over the summer, while the other I just got no more than 2 months ago. I decided to swap them and crank the heat up to 71. I also gave the bucket a gentle swirl. It took off for 24 hours much like an active fermentation would look like. I will take a hydrometer reading tonight since it would of been over 48 hours since my last reading. I also need to look at a more "accurate" way of taking temp for the controller. I currently have a heavy duty paper towel that is folded up to about the size of half of a dollar bill, duck taped around the edges while leaving just enough room to slide in the temp probe. Any better suggestions?

[Jkrehbielp]

Maybe you could start fermentation a few degrees lower and raise it a degree a day over 5 days of so. I've had good results improving my attenuation that way.

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[hazefodaze29]

Final Update:

So last night was Day 8 after pitching yeast. I first said it fermented down from 1.063ish to only 1.032. After jacking up the temp to 71 and giving the bucket a couple swirls here and there, it has fermented down to roughly 1.017. Dry hops added and will be kegged by Sunday morning. Maybe might fall a couple points? I will live with 1.015/1.016. Fairly strong green apple smell now. I assume after conditioning in the keg it will dissipate.

[flars]

Just a little update for those who are interested. I am fortunate to have a smaller chest freezer (roughly 5cb ft) for cold crashing and hopefully lagering soon) and a larger 8footer. With that, I have to Ink bird temp controllers. One of them I purchased over the summer, while the other I just got no more than 2 months ago. I decided to swap them and crank the heat up to 71. I also gave the bucket a gentle swirl. It took off for 24 hours much like an active fermentation would look like. I will take a hydrometer reading tonight since it would of been over 48 hours since my last reading. I also need to look at a more "accurate" way of taking temp for the controller. I currently have a heavy duty paper towel that is folded up to about the size of half of a dollar bill, duck taped around the edges while leaving just enough room to slide in the temp probe. Any better suggestions?

I use a combination of 1/2" foam pad, 1" thick styrofoam, and a bungee cord to hold the temperature probe to the side of the fermentor.  The styrofoam has a narrow channel cut into it to protect the probe from excess pressure exerted by the bungee cord.  The piece of foam padding is against the carboy with the more rigid styrofoam completing the seal from the temperature of the ambient air.

[Mythguided Brewing]

A few other ideas that I haven't seen mentioned yet in this thread:

1) If you haven't invested in one yet, you might want to try and get a rig to aerate your wort, prior to pitching (pure O2 and a SS airstone).  Might be that your yeasties aren't getting up to sufficient cell numbers before they switch to fermentation.  Some folks swear by this form of aeration - I've never needed to do it, but you might want to try it, at least as a way to eliminate under-aeration as a possibility.

2) Check your water chemistry.  A good rule of thumb for healthy yeast is to have at least 50 ppm calcium in the wort.  Obviously not an absolute (pilsener styles seem to get by with next-to-nothing levels of calcium).

3) Are you using yeast nutrient in the last 10 minutes of your boil?  There are other trace minerals (e.g. zinc) your yeast will require for healthy growth/fermentation that they may not be getting from your grist.  I use either Wyeast Nutrient or Fermax and haven't had any attenuation issues (yet)...

4) Try the same recipe, but with a less flocculating yeast.  Sometimes periodic swirling/degassing during fermentation will help to drop the FG a few points, and if you use a less flocculating yeast, they stay in suspension longer.  Again, may not be a huge difference, but might lower your FG a few more points.