Beginner brewer in distress

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Bates_Foreman

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This is my 4th time brewing. My first batch of beer was excellent, the last two have not been that great. This fourth batch i brewed was an ESB. I made sure i did everything right, and still came up with negative results. The Original gravity was 1.044 (Exactly what it should have been). But when i took my FG, it read 1.14. How is this possible? The only thing I might have done wrong was the temperature during fermentation but i kept it around a constant 66-67 degrees. I love brewing but I feel like i am getting frustrated at each failed attempt. I have researched a lot and thought for sure this was going to be the best beer i made... Can anyone figure out where I went wrong? Thanks...
 
How long has it been since you brewed? I'm guessing you mean 1.014, which is a fine FG particularly if you are brewing with extract. Have you tasted this latest attempt yet?

Also, can you be more specific with negative results? A certain taste, not enough carbonation, too sweet? Really we just need more info to get the ball rolling. Good luck though!
 
1.014 is a perfectly fine FG for that beer. You're just missing a digit in the reading, that's all.

The beer seems ok from that perspective. But what's wrong with the taste?
 
Are u sure it reads 1.014 or 1.14, I think if it reads 1.014 it's fine. Does it taste bad? What other problems do you have with it? Does it taste like alcohol? Why are u so sure that there is a problem? Maybe your not reading the SG correctly.
 
The beer was definitely at 1.14 FG. I checked it multiple times because i was in disbelief. I pitched my yeast about 4 weeks ago and everything looked just the way it should. The yeast was happy, they were doing their thing! But when i took my FG, it was at 1.14, which makes no sense to me. I let the beer sit in primary for 3 weeks, bottled, and have had no signs of carbonation.
 
The beer was definitely at 1.14 FG. I checked it multiple times because i was in disbelief. .

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that it's possible to genuinely go from an OG of 1.044 to 1.140 without something being added (like sugars or some other soluble substance to increase the specific gravity of the solution).

Someone please correct me if it is indeed even a remote possibility.

How long have you allowed this brew to carbonate?
 
Yes, something definitely amiss here, perhaps it's a batch that never finished fermentation, nervier had enough time to carbonate, and who knows what else. If you don't taste the alcohol then there was no fermentation, or very little. It must be extremely sweet then, is it?
 
paper prolly shifted. I don't see how it can go up w/o adding sugar or something to make the wort more dense.
 
It's vey hard to believe its the calibration on the hydrometer. It's especially hard to believe that during fermentation sugar content of the beer is increased.
 
i didn't even think about that and just threw in a suggestion. don't see how this problem could happen if it still taste good. was thinking infection, but that would make it taste horrible.
 
You may be misreading your hydrometer, 1.140 is a barley wine, not an ESB. You can't go from 1.044 to 1.14, if any thing it would still be at 1.044 or lower, 1.0-1.044, somewhere in there. 1.014 sounds right, ESB's are supposed to have some residual sweetness. If you think your reading is correct I would try calibrating it with water, which should be 1.000 at 60-70 degrees depending on hydrometer
 
The lack of carbonation sounds like maybe you forgot to add the priming sugar?

+1 for there being no way for a gravity to go up like that unless you did something really silly like add a bunch of jello. What does your hydrometer read in tap water?
 
The beer was definitely at 1.14 FG. I checked it multiple times because i was in disbelief. I pitched my yeast about 4 weeks ago and everything looked just the way it should. The yeast was happy, they were doing their thing! But when i took my FG, it was at 1.14, which makes no sense to me. I let the beer sit in primary for 3 weeks, bottled, and have had no signs of carbonation.

Sorry, it's just not possible for a beer that started at 1.044 to be at 1.14. It's just not possible, in any way.

It's got to be at 1.014. Can you take a picture of the floating hydrometer so we can see for ourselves what's going on? Make sure you spin the hydrometer in the test cylinder to knock off any c02 bubbles that are holding it up, and make sure it's not touching the glass.

If you have no signs of carbonation, how long has it been bottled, and what temperature have you been storing it at? if it's below 70 degrees, it make take a lot longer than three weeks to carb up.
 
Did you trip and drop 2lbs of candi syrup into the fermentor bucket? It would take 20+ lbs of grain to get an OG of 1.14, let alone a final gravity.

I'm brewing an ESB tomorrow and my targets, are OG 1.047 and FG 1.016. If it taste good, it has to be sitting at 1.014; 1.14 would taste absolutely awful.
 
Is it partially frozen like a slushy, or did you accidentally prime with lbs instead of oz? Put that hydrometer in some water and tell us what it reads. If its 1.000 test your beer 1 more time if not get a new hydrometer.
 
Wow... sorry guys. All of you are right. Somehow i miss read the reading on the hydrometer! (Rookie mistake :( ) Thats awesome news for me though! I thought all was lost!!!!! :) It has only been about a week from when we bottled, so I'm not as worried about the beer carbonating. My first beer saw signs of carbonation only after a week. I'm sure some beers can take a little longer. Thanks again for all the info! I can finally sleep in peace tonight! :mug:
 
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