Here's the recipe:
Specialty Grains
1 lbs. Simpson's Roasted Barley
Fermentables
6 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
Boil Additions
1 oz. Nugget (60 min)
If you choose dry yeast
Safale S-04. Optimum temperature: 64-75° F.
If you choose liquid yeast
Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale Yeast. Optimum temperature: 62-72° F.
Pretty simple so I can't imagine what I screwed up. Whatever the issue - the fault was mine.
Back to my first thought - would it make sence to add more sugar now?
It's an extract batch, and they are almost foolproof.
At the minimum with that recipe your OG was 1.048
It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE using extract and then topping off with water (and that includes partial mashes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...
When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"
If you want you beer to be a stout, then regardless of the reading you took, do not add any sugar, you will thin and dry out the beer...that is really the main reason we add sugar to beers, and usually it is Belgians we are doing it to NOT STOUTS- boosting the ABV while thinning out the body and drying out the beer.
I really doubt you beer is as low as you think it is...it is RARELY what the new brewer who says it is ends up being. (We see this a lot
)
In this case, since you have a pound of roasted barley, I wouldn't mess with changing anything.
Just trust that since this is an extract kit, unless you added too much water, that you did everything right, and the beer is the OG it was supposed to be.