Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:44 pm
The big problem I see here is that you are trying to solve a problem when you don't even know if you have a problem. The 80% attenuation figure is based on a nearly perfect wort under laboratory conditions. At home every wort is a little different. You may get a little better or a little worse attenuation.
The fermentability of your extract is the big unknown here. Some extracts like Laaglander and John Bull have a lot of unfermentable sugars in them. While they are good extracts, they were designed for recipes that have a bunch of sugar (100% fermentable) added as fermentables. If used without sugar, the final gravity will be higher than you want. At the other extreme are extracts like United Canadian that are extremely fermentable and don't need the sugar addition.
Until you actually brew a beer with a particular brand of extract, you don't really know what the final gravity will be. If you are using a published recipe, you will get in the ball park and then you can figure adjustments from there. If your final gravity is too high, cut back on the crystal malts a bit or replace some of the malt with table sugar. If you are doing a partial mash, lower the mash temperature to the 148° to 150° range.
If your final gravity is too low (unlikely in an extract brew), just increase the crystal malts a bit.
Just go ahead and brew the beer according to the recipe you have and take notes on what you did. If it tastes perfect, there is no problem. If it doesn't taste right, then we can figure out what needs to be done.
In short, don't try to fix it if you don't know it's broke.
Wayne