Big Gap Between Predicted and Actual OG

[Titus]

I'm an extract brewer who just bottled his fourth batch, a Java Stout. This time I used a kit from Midwest although I did use the Recipe Editor as a means to record my ingredients and process, etc.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... java-stout

My question is what factors are likely causing me to miss my OG by such a gap? After topping up my primary fermentor to five gallons, and before pitching the yeast, I measured my OG as 1.070. The recipe editor predicted a OG of 1.046 and the Midwest brewing recipe sheet predicted OG = 1.042 - 1.046. Oddly, my FG is spot on with this site's recipe editor at 1.013 which if very close to what Midwest said to expect (FG = 1.010 - 1.012).

Why is my OG so far off from what was predicted by both the recipe editor and Midwest?

By the way, I increased the efficiency of my steeping grains to 50% in an attempt to somewhat close the gap between actual OG and the recipe editor's prediction. The change in predicted OG was only incremental.

Thank you for any insights offered into this topic.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

the recipe editor is set to a wide range of brewers, more so to advanced and all grain, so the defaults like the Efficiency are set by you and the default losses for evaporation are set by you ahead and mainly for full boil until you change them, you should probably read the facts page first, make sure you click on the extract when creating the recipe and no telling what is actually in the kit since you didn't weight it your self

 

[Hogarthe]

my guess is the wort and top off water didn't get mixed entirely, and you got a thick sample. it is either that, or you ended up below 5 gallons final volume. check the volume of your fermenter, the lines on the outside of the bucket are not always accurate.