Final Gravities

[SiHoltye]

Sometimes when kit brewing it can be the case that it is difficult to achieve a good FG (rousing and re-pitching usually follows). Usually kits suggest 1014 or so. What FG's do grain brewers regularly achieve, and do you guys suffer sometimes with stuck ferments as sometimes happens with kits?

Thanks for any replies, just being nosey at the mo, but may go AG in the autumn. It doesn't depend on these answers, I'm just curious.

[bitter_dave]

Luckily I've not had a stuck fermentation on a mashed beer. Usually I use safale 04, and get a final gravity of about 1010 on a 1040-ish AG beer. When I've used brewery yeast a couple of times it has gone below this, to around 1006.

[SiHoltye]

What's made me think about this is the re-claimed yeast I'm using in primary now. It's got down to 1011 after 4 days (from 1044 ish - slightly short length). This was reclaimed Fullers chewing on a wherry kit. I've never got past 1014 with a dried yeast in previous 6 attempts, and only made that once. Also people talk of aerating for five or more minutes. I dropped the water in from height and gave it a minute or so of spoon in drill, so am well chuffed at the brewers yeast for now. Also the crust was noticeably higher in the fermenter this time than with the dried yeasts before, and reading through Stonch's blog spot this can be a sign of a happy yeast converting well. Is this right? Can crust height suggest good conversion and therefore greater alcohol content?

[ColinKeb]

ive never had one stick either, i use gervins real ale yeast most of the time and final gravity tends to be around 1010 -1012 but that seems to depend on the starting gravity as well.