Finishing gravities

[spuds]

Hello fellow brewers, looking for answers. I have just bottled my 3rd all-grain. Having a little trouble finishing a little high. Original gravities 1060 1053 and 1050. Finishing gravities, 1020, 1018, and 1021. Fermented all with dry yeast, 2 nottingham and 1 windsor. Temp was approx. 17 C. I have always used dry yeast from in a can brews to all-extract, usually all finish up 1008-1013.
Mashed all 3 at 150, so added in 11 liters of mash water at 170.

[derek]

If you're finishing high with yeasts that work for you on extracts, then you aren't getting sufficient conversion in the mash stage. I'd suggest upping your mash temperature - thermometers are rarely that accurate and if yours is reading just a degree or two high, you'd get results like that. A rough calibration should be done by testing the thermometer in ice water & boiling water - where it should say exactly 32F & 212F. The thermometers for my mash tun and HLT are ludicrously wrong, so I check everything with the candy thermometer - which is far more correct, but not very finely scaled.

[LiverDance]

Welcome spuds, my first suggestion would be to warm the fermenting temp up a little. 17C or 62F is at the lowe end of the scale for those 2 yeasts so a warm up might help. How long did you ferment for?

[Garak]

What are the grain bills for these beers?

[mr x]

Yeah, a little more info on the grain bill, and I think 17 is a bit low. Not sure of the attenuation of Windsor yeast...I know I had a bitch of a time with -04. Nottingham is usually pretty good though.

And .

Edit: A little googling indicates WIndsor is a bad attenuator, so that could be one issue.

[spuds]

I think maybe 17 was a tad low as well.
#1 85% 2 row
9% munic
4% crystal med
2% chocolate
#2 76% 2 row
12 % munic
12 % wheat
#3 88% 2 row
10% crystal med
2 % roasted barley
All mashed in a 19 liter cylinder cooler. Someone also mentioned to me that adding my grains to 11 liters of 170 water maybe converting at to high a temp, till it hits 150. Anyway experimenting can be fun. Found #1 atad sweet, 2 weeks in bottle #2 tastes great we shall see.

[mr x]

Are you using any software to calculate your mash temp? Beersmith has a free trial, and doesn't take too long to learn. It will calculate your required mash-in temp for you. Winging it will be hit and miss for sure.