Yesterday I had a big brew day where I bottled my Raspberry Red ale (which turned out great :rockin and brewed my Grand Cru. It is a kit from Midwest and the directions that came with it were TERRIBLE. You could tell that it is a generic set of instrutions that they just add the different ingredient names in at different points. Anyway, the kit came with 2lbs of honey and the directions said "add honey with 30 minutes left in the boil or 10 for a more pronounced honey taste" I added the entire 2lbs with about 15 mintues left and everything else went well.
I took a hydrometer reading just before pitching my starter and it was higher than the recipe called for, I was at around 1.061 and the top of the range specified was 1.058. This was really surprising because I brew extract and almost always hit my gravity (and yes I make sure my top off water and wort are well mixed). I went back and reviewed the instruction sheet and noticed a little box at the very bottom of the second page with "quick tips" one of which said "add 1lb of honey at 30-10 minutes left in boil" 1lb!! The instructions never stated to use only 1lb of the 2lbs provided!!!
Sorry for the long explanation, but do you think the additional lb of honey is what is causing my off hydro reading and if so, how will this affect my beer? I tasted it before pitching and it was very sweet but it tasted good to me...
I took a hydrometer reading just before pitching my starter and it was higher than the recipe called for, I was at around 1.061 and the top of the range specified was 1.058. This was really surprising because I brew extract and almost always hit my gravity (and yes I make sure my top off water and wort are well mixed). I went back and reviewed the instruction sheet and noticed a little box at the very bottom of the second page with "quick tips" one of which said "add 1lb of honey at 30-10 minutes left in boil" 1lb!! The instructions never stated to use only 1lb of the 2lbs provided!!!
Sorry for the long explanation, but do you think the additional lb of honey is what is causing my off hydro reading and if so, how will this affect my beer? I tasted it before pitching and it was very sweet but it tasted good to me...