Interesting results with my Grand Cru

Grain Mill

It was a great day of brewing on Saturday.  I was able to brew two beers that I had not brewed before and Scottish Ale 80/- and Grand Cru which is a type of Witbier. These were also the first extract kits I’ve ordered in a while where I didn’t get the grains precrushed, so I had to break out my grain crusher… fun fun fun!

Scottish Ale was a 90 minute boil, but a pretty straight forward recipe.  Looks like it will be a nice dark ale.  Challenger and German Tradition Hops and bunch of specialty grains, can’t wait for the end result.

Of the two, the Grand Cru, i was the most interested in.  A witbier that was slightly outside of the guidelines for a witbier.  I’ve brewed wits in the past but not with Hallertau hops and honey, 2 lbs of honey to exact.  I was a bit surprised to see the Original Gravity for this

Hydrometer Reading

beer was listed at 1.058, I would have thought adding that much fermentible material 15minutes before the end of the boil, would have pushed the Original Gravity higher.  None the less, it was still a fun boil.  I love the smell of orange and coriander when it boils with the hops.  All in all a good boil, didn’t miss any of my times; that especially god for me when I’m brewing two different beers at once.  The interesting part of this brew occurred when I took the hydrometer reading, 1.082.  I nearly fell over, I was shocked.  I expected 1.067-1.070 because I only boiled the honey for the last 15 minutes instead of the last 30 (to try and get a little more of the honey floral smell.

Right now the two beers are pumping away, both airlocks are very active.  I’m anxiously awaiting to see what the final gravity is going to be for the Grand Cru.

Have you had the similiar results?  I’d like to hear about it.