Another new all grain question.

Ok, did my first all grain on Saturday. An English Bitter. I hit all of my temps and everything seemed to go great. I did a batch sparge by the way. When I finished the sparge and had 6.5 gallons of wort, my pre-boil gravity seemed a bit low. Beersmith said it should be about 1.054, but I got 1.035. So what I did was instead of a 60' boil, I did a 90' boil. When I was done, I only had 4.5 gallons of wort, but I hit my OG 1.060 dead on. I am hoping this was correct and that it will turn out like it should with just a bit less quantity.

Was this the correct thing to do? Also, when I added my sparge water for the second runnings, I waited 15' before recirculating. If I had waited longer, would it have made a difference in the gravity?

Thanks.

The color of the beer will be darker and it will have an effect on IBU's (bitterness). The longer the wort is boiled it will become more bitter. There are 90 minute boil recipes out there but the HOP schedules are usually different. I wouldnt worry to much about it now, what's done is done. May be the best beer you have ever made.

I still did the hops at the scheduled times. 60', 10' & 1'.

A longer boil can yield a more caramelized brew. I've heard of some German brewers doing 3 and 4 our boils.

Also as long as you follow the same hops schedule it won't effect bitterness.