Missed my OG

I brewed this recipe yesterday and my OG was only 1.062. The only thing I can think happened was I didn't steep grains long/hot enough. Held steeping temp. at 150, but I started the clock while I was bringing the water up to temp. This OG shouldn't make a big difference should it? I did have a little higher than normal final volume, about 5.5 gals due to starter, and not as much boiloff. Thanks in advance.

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: wyeast 1762 Blegian Abey II
Yeast Starter: 1L
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.067
Final Gravity: 1.016
IBU: 26
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: blonde
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7
Additional Fermentation: util complete
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21
Tasting Notes: na


heat 1 gal. water to 155 degrees F add:
4 oz. Belgian Biscuit malt
4 oz. Belgian Aromatic malt
4 oz. German Munich malt
2 oz. Honey malt

heat and steep at 150 degrees F for 30 minutes. Strain the grain water into the brew pot. Sparge the grains with 1/2 gal. of 150 deg F water. Bring to boil, remove from heat and add:
7.25 lbs. Muntons Extra Light Malt extract
8 oz. Belgian clear Candi sugar
2 oz. Malto Dextrin
3/4 oz Pride of Ringwood @ 9.3% AA (7 HBU (bittering hop)

the two reasons you stated are probably the culprits - that extra .5 g will have had an effect on you OG (slighty more diluted), as will have starting the timer before your temps hit 150 (less fermentables are extracted)

Either way, your beer will likely turn out just fine.

The specialty grains would only account for about 4 points under ideal conditions.
If you didn't steep for long enough, that could be reduced to 2 - 3 points. No big deal
The extract and sugar would give you 65 points if you used DME, or 53 points if you used LME (with a 5.5g batch)
So if you used LME, you got a higher gravity then is possible, and if you used DME, you got a lower gravity than is possible.
Either your volume measurements are wrong, your hydrometer is inaccurate, you didn't apply temperature compensation to your hydrometer reading, or you didn't stir enough to completely mix the wort before taking the OG sample.
My guess is that inadequate stirring is the main contributor to the inaccurate reading, so RDWHAHB. It won't cause any problems as the yeasts will do all the stirring necessary during the fermentation.

-a.

Nope, I did temperature compensation on Hydro., and a full boil. I don't see where mixing would have anything to do with it. I did do a late LME addition, 30 minutes into the boil (forgot to edit that part of the recipe). I think, that by your calculations, the steeping grains probably account for the difference. I'm assuming of course when you refer to "points" that is decimal points on the hydrometer? Oh, and I used 6.5 lbs of LME and 1 lbs of DME. Maybe that's where the discrepancy is.

Yes, your understanding of points is correct.
I agree that if you did a full boil, stirring is unnecessary, unless you took the gravity reading after adding the starter. In that case, you would need to mix the starter with the rest of the wort.
If you used 6.5 lbs LME and 1 lb DME, then your gravity for 5.5g should be ~1.060, so it looks like you are just about where you should be. For 5g, it should be ~1.066 (which matches the recipe).

And 1 lb LME is equivalent to about 0.8 lb DME (because iy contains 20% water).

-a.

Ok. Thanks a lot for the good info. Looks like I'll have to calibrate my boil-off.