I'm making a modified MB Raspberry Wheat.
I used Whispering Wheat HME and Golden Wheat UME.
I am waiting to add the Raspberries until after the first week of fermentation.

My question is about the Original Gravity. The aprox OG on the MB recipe is 1.04. My OG was 1.034 at 65 F. The MB recipe adds the fruit to the Wort when the Wort goes into the LBK. I'm still new to all of this and I'm wondering if my waiting to add the fruit would explain the difference in OG.

If the answer to the above is "yes", then how am I ever supposed to get an accurate OG for the brew? Or an accurate FG or ABV?

your OG may be off for a few reasons. did you get all the malt extract out of the cans? was your water volume a little high? i would think the raspberries would give more than 0.006 points and since the sugar in those is in solid form, i don't think the sugars would show up when you do the hydrometer check. the amount you are off isn't enough to worry about. OG is really just to see how much alcohol it has, FG is more important IMO.

I know the Mr Beer alcohol estimates are on the high side. I wonder if their OG estimates are on the high side as well. Did you try adding the ingredients in Qbrew to see what it estimates? I find it's usually pretty close.

to expand on what bpgreen said, use the sugar amount listed in the nutrition facts for the cherries when putting it into qbrew. just add it as corn sugar, in the amount listed on the can. should be pretty close.

Those MB stats are just approximations based on a perfect world. They are a bit generous as well, just like the recomended carbonation levels. When using MB my OG's were always off, especially when adding booster, honey and other sugars.

Thanks everyone, I'll stop sweating the small stuff, I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.