Ooooooooooh yeah. I've had beers finish above 1.020 by design. That's a good near beer you got there. Well maybe not. First what was it that you intended to brew and what's the batch size and your boil volume? Second please take a new hydrometer reading. If you are using a bucket to ferment in sanitize the hydrometer and put it in. In other words, verify the hydrometer reading you initially got was accurate with the now stabilized wort temperature. If so, you are severely lacking in sugars. Not to worry, it can be fixed. But next time, try not to over water down your batch if you can. Here is what I'd do to save it if you are still at 1.020. Go to your LHBS and buy some extract (liquid or dry, your choice). So buy one can of liquid malt extract (3.15-3.3 lbs.) or 2 lbs. of Dry Malt Extract and boil in a gallon of water, add a bit of hops if you have any left and boil for 30 minutes. Basically make a mini batch. Chill it to fermented temp and add to your fermenter. If there is not room, remove a gallon of wort from the fermenter first. That should boost your wort in the 1.040 range. If your intended O.G. was higher adjust how much malt extract you add to your mini batch. DME is given 45 points per pound per gallon or 9 points per 5 gallons. LME is given 37 points per pound per gallon or 7 points per 5 gallons. So that should give you an indication of how much extract you would need. If your concentrated mini batch needs to be larger to accommodate the extract bump it up to 1.5-2 gallons. Replace a portion of weak wort in your fermenter with strong concentrated wort and add no further water. I've done this before to bump up the O.G. and fix a batch. You are not too late. Besides what are Sundays for? You'll be fine Matt. Let us know if you need anything else. We can help. Besides your wife is amazing. Do anything she says. (Get her to make cookies prior to your brew sessions and she'll be real amazing!)
