[dnward]

I just brewed "Cream of the Crop" in the Brew Guru App and the OG came in .013 higher than expected.  The recipe says OG should be 1.057 and I came in at 1.070.  When I put the recipe into Brewer's Friend I'm right where I should be.

Has anybody else had any problems with a recipe being way off?

Thanks

[mabrungard]

That result is possible with ANY recipe. I'm sure that the author made an assumption or observation for their system efficiency and predicted the amounts of grain needed to reach the desired gravity. Hopefully that was stated in the recipe.

If your system efficiency differs significantly from recipe's reported efficiency, you should plan on altering the relative amounts of each grain to account for that difference. Keeping the percentages of each of the grain bill constant, should enable you to recreate that recipe while accommodating your system's efficiency.

[BrewBama]

I normally have to reduce grains to meet a certain OG due to my system getting a more efficient use of those grains than the recipes cites. I simply input the recipe as written into my brewing software, apply my typically efficiency, then reduce the OG to the desired level. The software calculates what I need to get the recipe OG which is normally less grain than the written recipe. Sometimes I get better than typical efficiency and still come in slightly higher than expected but not near what I would have if I did not adjust the recipe.

Over a series of brews you should start to get a feel for your system efficiency and can apply similar adjustments.

[kramerog]

What the other guys said is correct.  I just want to add that sometimes people get a higher OG than expected without taking into account that they got a smaller volume than expected.

[dnward]

Thanks for the quick replies.  Looks like the author was assuming a brew house efficiency of 65% and I got 80%.  I'll make sure to check what the recipe is based on in the future. 

Just lucky I guess that every other recipe I've ever  brewed was based closer to what I actually get for efficiency.

Thanks