What temp are you fermenting at? Any chance it got too hot or cold? Did you try giving it a stir at any point so far? Did you allow for the offset of your reading?

It is in a climate controlled area. The first week it was bubbling strong. I thought I was going to have something strong to start with , then it died. You think I can add more yeast? !

And yes adding more yeast will work..but make sure to activate the yeast before pitching also keep in mind bakers yeast will not yield over 14..in fact you shouldn't push it beyond 10percent abv. The dead yeast in your mash maybe produce off flavored depending on how much you used..

Thanks for all the responses. I used a turbo Pure 24 yeast that I bought from Brewhaus. My goal was to try and get four gallons of beer to 15%abv. I dissolved the malt extract about 1/2 gallon at a time on the stove and put it into a five gallon plastic water bottle. When I got close to my third gallon I took a reading than added room temperature distilled water to the warm beer and got to a 17% abv reading. The temp of the beer at this point was only 85 degrees so I pitched the entire sache of yeast directly into the bottle, shook it up real good and put the airlock on it and within 15 minutes it started bubling. Here it is a week later and it quite bubbling and my ABV is only 9%. I realize that is probably plenty to distil, but I was expecting more.

Taste it to see if it's still sweet. If not it's done.

Also you need to be useing your specific gravity meter before pitching yeast and then check SP with it when ferment stops and that will give you your ABV. If you try useing an alcohol meter on your mash it will give you a false reading. Alcohol meters are only good in alcohols not beers which is what a mash is.

If tastes dry and not sweet run it.

Oh BTW bakers yeast is really hard to push past 12%. Turbo's, if done in steps, can go up to 20% without having off flavors, maybe more but I have'nt tried it yet.