honey or yeast skyrocketed ABV?

[Halapeenyo]

So this may be a newbie question but I am a newbie ...
I am brewing a honey amber ale extract kit from Midwest... the recipe calls for an OG of about 1.063.
Recipe also comes with 2lbs honey. Along with this 2lbs I added an additional 2.5 lbs pure Colorado honey. When brewing this batch I forgot to take a hydrometer reading and had to take one right after I pitched the yeast. This reading read 1.083 with ABV of 10.5%... this seemed like a huge boost in gravity from a small amount of honey..

Honey is loaded with sugar I know this. My question is,

Does the presence of yeast in the wort affect gravity or does this really seem accurate?

If so I may need to rethink yeast to fully ferment it I am using 1 11.5g packet of US05

Beer is already 3 days into fermentation...

Any advice?

 

[agrazela]

Has it begun to krausen?

 

[Halapeenyo]

Yes the yeast seem healthy and its got a nice layer of krausen on top.. my fear is if the gravity was accurate I'm not gonna get a full fermentation using the yeast I am...don't know how capable it is

 

[Yooper]

Yes the yeast seem healthy and its got a nice layer of krausen on top.. my fear is if the gravity was accurate I'm not gonna get a full fermentation using the yeast I am...don't know how capable it is

It should do the job. Honey is all simple sugars, and fully ferments, and should give you a thin dry beer in the end.

 

[Calder]

Yeast will not affect hydrometer reading.

The alcohol % on the hydrometer is of no use in brewing. All it is, is an estimate of the alcohol if the brew were to ferment to 1.000. Rarely does beer ferment to 1.000.

2.5 lbs of honey in 5 gallons will increase the gravity by about .017. So your 1.063 would go up to about 1.080.

If you didn't quite have 5 gallons, the gravity could be higher. If your volume was 2 pints less than 5 gallons (5%) that would increase the gravity by about .003/.004.

I don't know your recipe, but the honey will dry it out (will result in a lower than expected Final Gravity (FG)). At a guess, you could finish around 1.010, which would result in a brew about 9.5% abv.

Some beers do well with a lot of simple sugar (Belgians), but most don't. Honey is considered a simple sugar as most of it will be converted to alcohol by the yeast. Adding a lot of simple sugar creates more alcohol, makes the beer drier, and results in a beer without sufficient body to support the alcohol (thin tasting). But it will be beer,

S-05 will not have a problem fermenting that brew.

 

[Halapeenyo]

Wow...thanks for the info

 

[paperairplane]

Be patient with this - that much alcohol is going to take some time in the bottle to calm down. I probably wouldn't even try it for 3 weeks.