Strange Brew

So last night as my dad and I were preparing our holiday brew, we noticed something odd about the wort, as we added in the hops, they remained very thick and soupy. As we were transferring it to the carboy, we were only able to get roughly three gallons rather than the five that one usually gets from the kits. The siphon kept getting clogged because it was just so hoppy, so we sorta had to ladle the wort through a strainer to keep the rest of it from getting too much sediment.

At the three gallon mark, we reached the maximum specific gravity, and so we were wondering if because there's less liquid, should we use less yeast? We just have the one standard packet of Ale yeast that comes from the BrewersBest Kits, and the kit we used was HopNog 2011.

Any tips would be appreciated, thanks!

I'm drinking a Hopnog I brewed about 6 weeks ago right now. I had the same problem with the hops, though I got about 4.5 gallons into the fermenter.

Just pitch the whole package. You will be fine.

BTW, the beer turned out really nice! Similar to a Bells 2 Hearted.

How did you use the grain? If steeped in the grain bag and then remove, you would have topped up the water to pre boil of 5 gal. and add the LME. The 3 oz. of leaf hop should not absorbed enough to make the wort thick and soupy. Kit instructions are often confusing. check the partial mash "sticky" in the all grain forum, and you may find what went wrong along the way. You can use the whole pack of yeast or say 3/4 of it and be fine. I chuckled when I checked the kit and saw the word "experimental" leaf hops. Just my thoughts. Cheers & Happy Thankgiving