Fixes for low OG

I recently brewed a 5 gal Porter from a kit. My OG ended up at 1.044 vs a target of 1.051 - 1.055. From what I have read there are a few things I could have done to cause this (i.e. too much water added to the wort prior to pitch, covered boil, age of kit - purchased back in Nov). It has been 48 hours since my brew day. I am going to wait another 24 hours before taking another reading.

What could have been done on brew day after taking the OG reading to fix it at that point? Is there anything I can do at this point or should I just relax and accept it as "it is what it is"?

As I alluded to above I may have added too much water because my last few batches have come up mighty short of the expected yield - 4 gal or less, covering the boil was just a bonehead move and I brewed a Stout about a month and a half earlier that would have been near the same age of the Porter and it tastes great.

Any advice would be appreciated.

For my first batch after switching from a partial boil to a full boil I forgot to take into account the lower percentage of loss from evaporation during the boil for the larger boil. By the time I realized I had already started adding hops so I just proceeded with my normal hop schedule and at the end I had about three quarts more wort than planned and a significantly lower gravity.

To get my beer back on target I calculated how many more gravity units I needed to get me where I wanted to be then waited until fermentation had slowed a bit and made two quarts of a super-high gravity wort with some DME and a little crystal and added it to my fermenter. The beer turned out great and as a bonus I had an extra gallon or so.
-William

The easiest way to deal with low OG is to have a supply of DME on hand to make adjustments if your gravity is too low. DME can be added late in the boil as it only needs 10 or 15 minutes of boiling as it has already had all the bad stuff cooked off in processing. You will need a way to measure your gravity during the boil to determine if you are on target or not. This is easiest accomplished with a refractometer, but if you don't have one you can use a hydrometer. It just uses more wort and requires you to chill it before you take the reading which can be a pain.

As to adjusting gravity after it is in the fermentor, it can be done by cooking up a separate high gravity batch of DME and adding to the fermentor. This is a pain because you have to figure the additional contribution vs the amount of wort you already have, and it adds a bit to the risk of infection as everytime you play with the fermentor you add a bit of risk. It is rarely worth the trouble. As to your current batch I would leave it as is and enjoy the beer when it is finished.

As to your current batch I would leave it as is and enjoy the beer when it is finished.

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+1 to this. Instead of messing with this batch just accept it is going to have a lower ABV and for subsequent brews have a couple of bags of DME on hand to adjust if needs be.

i suspect you simply didn't mix your partial boil thoroughly with the top off water. you can't really miss gravity on an extract kit unless you don't add the right amount of water to get the final volume.

so, it could be that, or it could be mixing. you do have to stir 10 minutes solid to get it fully mixed.

I opened my fermenter this evening and saw ZERO signs of fermentation. I visited my LHBS and it was suggested to pitch a new batch of yeast which I did tonight. This time I stirred the brew for 10 minutes. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for all the advice and I will definitely get some DME and dry yeast to keep on hand just in case.