High OG ?

I had thought that the brewing today went well. It was all all grain California common, Anchor Steam Clone. After I put it into the new conical, I drew a sample for gravity test. Brew Smith predicted 1.046. I repeated the test twice, and the temperature corrected result was 1.061. The grain quantities matched the bill. Where did I go wrong / right ??

 

What was your expected efficiency?
How much grain did you use, and what volume of beer?

 

These are the main points to look at. Either your efficiency was higher than expected, or you ended up with less wort than expected, or both.

 

10.5 lbs of malts. 5 gal. out. Beer Smith thinks I got about 80% efficiency, and that seems kinda high for a newby like me. I don't know how to figure expected efficiency.

 

What you did right was make an Imperial Steam. Probably you won't get the bitterness you want to balance the bigger beer, but it still will be tasty. I think Steam is an under-rated style, and the Anchor version is not quite big enough, so enjoy your version.

 

Yep, that's about 80% efficiency. There's no reason you shouldn't get 80% efficiency as a newby as long as your crush is good and you stir lots. A new brewer might do even better that that if they crush really fine with BIAB.

Next time, measure your gravity pre-boil. If you know your boiloff, you can estimate OG by
OG = pre-boil gravity x pre-boil volume / post-boil volume
If you don't know your boiloff, a rough estimate would be to add 25% on to your pre-boil gravity.
If your expected OG is higher than you wanted, you can then make an informed decision as to what to do....maybe add more hops or water it down.