slow ferm

[ender]

OK here is my story.
 I brewed a Irish red on Feb 8th. I Brewed and cooled my brew as i have done countless times in the past. the only difference is I fermented in a bucket and transferred to a keg to secondary. I had good bubbling as you would expect. (I pitched Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast)
 I checked my gravity reading at day seven and it read 1.030 my og was 1.053. I was leaving for vacation so i racked to my keg to secondary. i spent a week and a half  on vacation and came back thinking i would be good to rack to my serving keg. I took a  gravity reading on march 2nd and it read 1.020. has anyone had a ferment like this? Should i

[SOGOAK]

My three guesses are:

1. weak start by the yeast -not enough areation
2. colder ferm temp
3. that rack limited the ammount of yeast still suspeneded

[MaltLicker]

What was total volume of wort and the ferm temp?  Assuming both of those were OK, it sounds like it was just slow (various causes for that) and by racking on day seven, you may have slowed it further with the reduction in yeast count.  Three weeks in primary would be fine.  If you're still at 1.020 and the goal is about 1.014 (73% AA), I would warm it slightly to help the remaining yeast finish.  This would also help resolve any diacetyl created earlier that the lower yeast count is struggling to clean up. 

If the recipe had a higher ratio of caramel and some roast, it is possible it may be "done" at 1.016 or 1.017 b/c of the unfermentable sugars.  What was mash temp?

[ender]

I brew 5 gallon batches and i Ferment at 65-69

 my grain bill
10 lbs. - 2 Row Malt (Maris Otter prefered, but any will work)
1/4 lb. - Roasted Barley
1/2 lb. - Melanoidin Malt

Yeast
White Labs Irish Ale Yeast Wyeast 1084) No Starter
Mash/Sparge/Boil

Mash at 154 degrees for an hour
ferment at 65° to 68°

Thanks for the reply

[MaltLicker]

One package of 100 billion healthy cells should have done the job, although the www.mrmalty.com calculator does indicate a starter.  (It said 185 billion cells needed.)  Did the package plump up quickly?  Perhaps the package was weakened by age or poor handling.  You say ferm was from 69 to 65F....do you think it moved up and down overnight?  Yeast are sensitive to temp changes.  Could there have one night that dropped more than that, and it was slow to recover? 

Regardless, it probably would've finished OK in primary during the vacation, albeit slowly.  How is it now?