Low OG plus a lot of time in the primary

Hello. It was several months now that my beer has been in the primary. I more or less forgot about it a few weeks after I brewed and kept meaning to get back to it - etc. etc. Well I finally cracked it open to give it a taste before bottling and the results = very thin.

I brewed an American Pale Ale. When I was creating the wort, it took a long time to get my pot to a boil (think i got too large of a pot and not a big enough burner. I eventually turned on a second burner and it came up no prob). I think a lot of the wort evaporated off, yet I put in the same amount of water to bring it to 5 gallons. I'm guessing 0.5 gallons evaporated off. So 3 gallons of water and 2 gallons of wort. The OG was low. I wrote down that I had 1.02. Anticipated OG was 1.051 - 1.055. Since I forgot it and came back I took an FG reading - 1.012 which is what was anticipated. Problem is - very weak and very thin beer. I want to save the batch but don't know what to do.... More malt and yeast for a week or so???

Suggestions are most welcome! Thanks!!!!

Hmmm..never heard of a situation like this. However, I would recommend not adding malt or yeast. Was the airlock bubbling after brew day?

Curious, how much Liquid or dry extract did you use?

It wasn't bubbling, but I was told to never let this bother me but instead use the hydrometer reading. But turns out the OG/FG is telling me I have a 1% beer!

I used a Brewers Best kit (American Pale Ale) which included 6.6 lb. LME (2 - 3.3lb tins).

Good news is that your OG reading was wrong. What it says on the kit is probably correct
Its werry hard to get a correct reading when adding water after boil

janivar123 said:

Good news is that your OG reading was wrong. What it says on the kit is probably correct
Its werry hard to get a correct reading when adding water after boil

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^ This. There's no way you were that low if you added 6.6 lbs of LME. It probably didn't taste right because it's not carbonated. Bottle it up, give it three weeks at 70* and then chill one for 2 days and taste. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised.

chickypad said:

^ This. There's no way you were that low if you added 6.6 lbs of LME. It probably didn't taste right because it's not carbonated. Bottle it up, give it three weeks at 70* and then chill one for 2 days and taste. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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+1

The OG of extract brews are always close to the expected OG, assuming you added the proper amounts of extract to the proper volume of water. Low measured OG tend to be a result of topping off with fresh water and not getting it mixed in with the sugary, dense wort (no matter how hard/much you thought you mixed it).

A FG of 1.012 is a very nice FG. Don't judge the beer when it is flat and warm. Bottle it up, let it fully carbonate, chill it down, then taste it. (btw, since it's been so long in primary, you might want to add a couple grams of dry yeast when you bottle)

I was a little worried that I may have added too much water to the wort, since there was a good amount of evaporation. I'll go ahead and add a small amount of yeast and bottle it. Thanks for the advice!