Yeast - actual vs suggested attenuation

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black_labb

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I'm wondering if it is just me or not but I've found that my attenuation rates don't really match the specifications from the manufacturers. For example I have quite a bit of experience with wyeast 1187 Ringwood / wlp05 and often get relatively high attenuation despite the low specified attenuation. I recently tried wlp017 / 1028 London ale for 3 beers which have all ended up with less attenuation than I would have expected with ringwood despite the specs suggesting it is more attenuative. I would have expected the 3 beers to finish about 2-5 gravity points lower on beers with ogs of 1047-1060 Ive noticed similar things with other yeasts.

I very rarely repeat recipes and my step maching schedules are a bit dependant on my mood on the day so I can't claim to be the perfect scientific test. Does anyone else find that specified attenuation rates for yeasts don't seem to really match up with real world rates or is it just me?
 
I don't know if mine match up to what the manufacturers say they should be, but most of the time I hit the predicted FG that Beersmith suggests for each recipe. The only yeast I've used that finished high each time was 1318 - it stopped 3-4 points higher than the predicted every time I used it for some reason. With other yeasts it's either been bang on or within a point or two at most.
 
I havent used beersmith but I take it it gives different fg based on ingredients and yeast strains? Most software I've used doesn't do this (either you input a attenuation % or it spits out a standard attenuation of say 75% regardless of the ingredients.
 
Thanks Rocker, good to know and thanks for the response.
 
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