Temperature vs. Attenuation

[plankbr]

I'm not sure there may be any correlation, but would fermentation temperature and yeast attenuation be closely tied to each other? For example:

I have brewed many, many batches, with different mash temps ranging from 150*-156*. In using S-04 and US-05, fermenting starting at 59*, ranging up to 62* during it's peak. With all of these batches, I have gotten 83% attenuation in the past 5 batches. Nothing has changed except yeast strains, both Safale.

Just throwing out my observations and no factual info, I think they are closely related. Any thoughts on this? I think I may need to experiment with Wyeast 1056 and 1272 starters to see if I get the same effect. If so, I am wondering if I can get all my batches to achieve 83% attenuation and make this a constant in my ever growing equation. Thoughts?

 

[GuldTuborg]

To some degree, they are related. Yeast are more active at warmer temps, until they start to suffer and die from temps that are too high. So warmer temps will help assure a higher degree of attenuation, whereas colder temps may discourage this by forcing yeast into an early state of dormancy. This is all capped off by the limit of attenuation of the wort, and there are other factors that will affect actual attenuation.

If you want all batches to have 83% AA exactly (and unless you're brewing the same thing all the time, I'm not sure why you would), you'll have to balance much more than fermentation temps.