I brewed the NB Chinook IPA over the weekend and forgot to steep the grains before adding the LME. After I realized what I had done, I took it off the burner and let it cool to below 170 and steep the grains for 20 minutes before putting it back on the burner, have I ruined this batch? I noticed I missed the OG by a pretty large margin (1.042). Also since this is only my second batch, I have a question about the dry hopping. The kit came with 1 oz of chinook hops to add to the secondary fermentor, do I just toss those in or do they need to go in a bag?
No problem. No advantage, either, but no problem.
You’re fine. The OG is difficult to get an accurate reading for an extract beer due to stratification of the wort/top off water. Your sample wasn’t mixed well enough. Is you added all the fermentables, then your OG will be as advertised in your instructions.
And make sure your hydrometer is correct. Put it in water at 60F and see if it reads 1.000. If it reads above or below this amount, add that difference to each reading you take to get the real gravity.
