Kinda Pliny Clone - huge gravity drop

[czarsketch]

Heya,

This is my first recipe post! Huzzah!

I just transferred my Kinda Pliny Clone to the secondary, and it's really pretty amazing. It tastes wonderful, the fermentation happened super quickly thanks to a 1/2 gallon starter, and the color should be great when it clears up.

Other than the entirely hacked dry hopping technique (is this going to cause problems? It's not too late to change it now), I have one concern about the gravity. We went from an OG of 1.079 to a SG of 1.014 today. That puts it at about 8.8%, but given the recipe I cannot figure out how we got it that high in alcohol. It does taste like it's in that range, and we measured at the proper temps, etc., but is this even possible? Could the OG be off slightly?

Anyway, I'm proud! Take a look below:

 

[czarsketch]

My only thought is that the honey this recipe calls for assumes some standard type of honey, and the type I used was a really nice local batch with a milder flavor. Could a stronger honey explain it?

 

[bobbrews]

Yes, it's possible to hit above 8.5% abv for this brew. But it would mean that you had better than 75% attenuation with the 1056... More like 82-84%.

 

[czarsketch]

OK, that's good to know!

I used a 2 liter starter with:
-2 cups LDME
-1 smack pack of 1056

and I aerated the living hell out of it for a good 18 hours, then pitched it. This is also my first yeast starter, so I'm not sure what to expect from that, either.