brewday confusion.

So I had a brew day yesterday and brewed an IPA I've done before that I've had success with and turned out very tasty. Some interesting things happened yesterday that still have me a little confused as to what happened and what caused it.

I was using a large grain bill with 15.65lbs of grain for a 5.5gal batch. 80% was american 2 row with about 4 other specialty grains. I did a single infusion mash at 151F or so for 60 min. Mash seemed to go well and the sparge went well. I finished the sparge with around 8 gal of wort. I planned on having 8 gal cause I use about 6 oz of whole hops in this recipe and do a 90 min boil. At this point my wort looked very clear with nothing floating around. My target grav was 1.065. Here is where my first issue arose. I took a grav reading before the boil started and adjusted for temp and I got 1.080!!! Wow, thats huge. Using ray daniels formula in his book " designing great beers" I determined I would be around 1.098 at the end of my boil if I boiled it down to 6 gal of finished beer. Thats 30 points over my target. I basically summed it up to the fact that I ground my own grains on my new grain mill and my efficiency was through the roof. Not a bad problem. I was going to split this batch into 2 carboys and dilute it to 1.065. Keep that in mind cause it is one of my questions. I started the boil and got a nice good rolling boil. I had a bit of a spill over when the hot break came but was able to lower the heat and it settled down. Thats when I notice I had all these little floating flakes in the wort. I took a strainer and started scooping it out but there was to much. What was this stuff? My wort was clear after sparge but these flakes appeared after the boil. Nothing I could do about it so I continued. Added hops, and cooled. Strained it into my primary and drew off a sample to test. When I took my test it came out to 1.066!!?!?!?!??!? This doesnt seem possible. If I had 8 gal of beer at 1.080 and boiled it down to 6 gal, how is my gravity lower now!! Also what were all the floaties in my wort, are these connected in anyway. Either way I did hit my target but not by any skill in my hands lol. Any insight would be appreciated.

Floaties (barring someone fckn with you) sound like precipitated proteins, a very good thing and sign of a very rigorous boil. It is tru that you can temperature correct a hydrometer, but your asking for false readings. I would bet that is exactly what you got. I recommend Taking a sample of wort, putting it in the freezer or ice bath etc, get it down to at least 80, preferably no correction at all. When I take readings, I leave the hydrometer in my test flask, and come back later to take another reading, twirling and bobbing it around to make sure it is correct.

It sounds to me that the readings were not taken properly or your calibration is off. I try to get my samples as close to my calibration temperature as possible (60F) I have found that the adjustments for temp are not always the most accurate. It IS impossible to have a lower reading after boil. As for the white floater things, no idea. Could have been some residue in the kettle that broke free, maybe something from the 6oz of hops, maybe from the mash debris, it sounds as though the crush was pretty fine so maybe a bunch of finer particles got in the kettle