beersmith projects 1.055, hydrometer reads 1.070?

[deepsouth]

i brewed an extract with grains batch today, partial boil, final volume was 5 gallons with 3 gallons of water added post boil.

i used three pounds of light and three pounds of extra light, the light added the last 15 minutes.  my final boil volume was 2 gallons after boil-off.  i steeped a pound of c10, 12 oz of biscuit and 4 ozs each of special b and special roast.  i steeped for 30 minutes.

beersmith projected the OG to be 1.055, but it measured out to 1.070.  i took the sample from the carboy with a wine thief and set it aside while i pitched the yeast and got everything set up for fermentation.  i came back and took the temp of the wort, 70 degrees.  i did notice that there was lots settled in the bottom of the glass.  i poured it over into the hydrometer tube and voila', 1.070.

possible or did the top off method mess me up?  i added a gallon of refrigerator cold water after a 25 minute ice bath and then racked it onto another gallon of cold water and then used almost a whole other third gallon to get it up to the five gallon mark.

thanks in advance.

[morticaixavier]

my vote is stratification. bad sample.

[garc_mall]

my vote is stratification. bad sample.

I agree. That has been my experience when adding fermentables (honey) or water after the boil.

[alcaponejunior]

when I was doing extract batches and topping off with water, I sampled after aeration.  That got rid of any stratification issues.