Hi all
I was brewing my house pale ale this morning and I got a very high OG 1.061
I step mashed from 123f for 30 mins then rose temp (using berms) to 152.5f for 30 mins then mash out at 170f 10 mins, sparged with 20.5 L at 173.5.
I was 2.5 Litres short in the kettle due to human error 
Grist
2.5 kg Maris otter
2.5 kg Vienna
.075 acid malt
Ph was 5.35
My usual efficiency was 75%, according to these figures I got 104% efficiency 
hydrometer is calibrate in water seems correct (re checked) refractometer reads the same…unless I added too much grain…possible but… I’m at a loss
If I added 1kg too much my efficiency would be 87% surely not (taking into account lower boil volume)
Any ideas or suggestions as to what might have happened
If you were 2.5 litres short in the kettle, that’s probably your answer right there. Your wort is more concentrated than usual. Same amount of sugar, less water, higher gravity.
Yup.
It was 13pts too high…
After back tracing…my error…weighing the grain, mistook display…read 1kg not 2kg, emptied into bucket and weighed the extra 1.5kg. (I weighed out more grain to check)
So the shortfall in the kettle + the 1.5kg extra grain gets me to the new gravity…cheers lads
Just add water at the end to bring the OG where it needs to be?
You could do that but you may find the beer is lacking in body. Maybe bring it down to a higher then normal abv, but use caution diluting you don’t want thin beer. Used to happen to be when I was in my extract days.
Meh. I’ve never experienced thin beer from topping up. If you know your volumes, you can calc the gravity and the amount needed to top up to where you want to be.
Thin beer seems like there’s a problem somewhere else.
I agree. If you’re topping up beer that is short on volume but has the right amount of sugar (after topping up) then it shouldn’t be thin. The top up is just replacing the water that should have been in the beer but for the excessive evaporation in the kettle.
+1. Used to do this all the time. After a while, I just gave up and saved the time and effort and went with what I got instead.