Am I wasting my hops?

[David R]

Had a bit of a disaster last week, well maybe not a disaster but a still f*** up. I borrowed a friends grain mill, and expecting a higher efficiency I checked my pre-boil gravity. All I can think of is that the sample was too warm, but somehow I misread it and thought I was 12 points up on where I should have been. Expecting a much boozier beer I decided too bump up the hops to balance it out, thinking I'd be brewing a 7% IPA instead of a 5.8% APA. Turns out the OG was actually 1.052, not the 1.064 I expected (not crushed fine enough I guess?), and with the additional hops I was looking at a 5% beer with about 65IBU. Eventually I decided to take it as an opportunity to do some experimentation and I added 750g of [pasteurised and diluted] honey after high krausen, which should bump the ABV back up to about 6.8%.

My dilemma now is should I dry hop the beer as originally planed? I'll post the recipe below, originally I was going to use 100g of Simcoe and 30g of Citra, but now I'm thinking that A; I shouldn't throw more money into this beer and B; the dry hop flavour will mask the taste of the honey. Thoughts?

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 23.00 l
Efficiency: 70.00 %

Ingredients

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
3.40 kg	Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM)	Grain	1	52.9 %
1.80 kg	Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)	Grain	2	28.0 %
0.42 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)	Grain	3	6.5 %
0.06 kg	Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)	Grain	4	0.9 %
5.00 g	Simcoe [12.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min	Hop	5	6.1 IBUs
30.00 g	Cascade [7.60 %] - Boil 30.0 min	Hop	6	17.7 IBUs
0.96 tsp	Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)	Fining	7	-
20.00 g	Simcoe [12.10 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	8	8.9 IBUs
80.00 g	Simcoe [12.10 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min	Hop	9	24.3 IBUs
25.00 g	Citra [13.11 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 15.0 min	Hop	10	8.2 IBUs
1.9 pkg	Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]	Yeast	11	-
0.75 kg	Honey (1.0 SRM)	Sugar	12	11.7 %
100.00 g	Simcoe [12.10 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days	Hop	13	0.0 IBUs
30.00 g	Citra [13.10 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days	Hop	14	0.0 IBUs

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.9 %
Bitterness: 65.3 IBUs
Est Color: 5.1 SRM

Measured Original Gravity: 1.062 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.6 %

[Scott H]

You could still dry hop but maybe just back the amounts off a bit or go something like 30/30

[David R]

Tasted it today, it's down to 1.010 and I added 30g Citra and 50g Amarillo. There's a noticeable honey flavour that will work well with the hops, but also a little hot alcohol which will hopefully mellow over time. All in all a good outcome, looking forward to tasting it cold and carbed up!