Please tell me my hydrometer reading is wrong?

So, I finally put together my first batch of mead. Here is the recipe I used:

1 gallon orange blossom honey
5 lbs of wildflower honey
1/4 tsp potassium metabisulfite
1 lb raisins soaked in water to rehydrate
fresh orange peel from 1/2 a medium naval orange
5.5 tbsp bee pollen
2 packets (10g) Lalvin 71B yeast (will be fermenting around 76-78 degrees F.)

I put everything together, except the yeast, and added the potassium Metabisulfite (more to sanitize the the orange peel and raisins and bee pollen -i'm sadly a bit nuts about cleanliness and sanitation). I filled the fermenter up to 5.5 gal, put the lid and airlock on and left it sit overnight. This evening I boiled 1.25 cup water, let it cool to room temp, and let the yeast soak for about 20 minutes. I stirred the heck out of the must, took and OG reading by plunking the sanitized hydrometer in the must, spun it, took note of the reading, and pulled it out. Then added the yeast.

Then I thought about the hydrometer - the reading was at 1.2. I'm hoping as much as I can that I just suck at reading the thing because 1.2, in a 77 degree kitchen gives me an OG of 1.202. Can that strain of yeast even start if the OG is that high? I can't seem to find anything on the spec sheet.

I really need to man up and buy a refractometer.

Any thoughts or feedback?

"......took and OG reading by plunking the sanitized hydrometer in the must...".

Solids floating on the top of your must could be effecting the reading. Draw off a sample of just liquid must and try that (like with a wine thief from below the surface).

What OG were you expecting? Do you have a calculated OG for this recipe?

Curtis2010 said:

"......took and OG reading by plunking the sanitized hydrometer in the must...".

Solids floating on the top of your must could be effecting the reading. Draw off a sample of just liquid must and try that (like with a wine thief from below the surface).

What OG were you expecting? Do you have a calculated OG for this recipe?

Click to expand...

When I tried my brew calculator it showed ~1.13, so I think you may be on to something. It just seems absurdly high.

Figured it out - in my excitement i misread the hydrometer. 1.122 is correct.

Close enough!

well I just took an FG reading on my mead and I'm getting 1.20? I hope I'm wrong with that because I can taste alcohol in it. Damn thing fermented for like 4 months. It is sweet as hell but tastes like mead. This is my first mean. Maybe I am looking at the wrong part of the hydrometer? It's one that cam with a kit. It is reading 1.20 in the Desert Wine Section.

scottyg354 said:

well I just took an FG reading on my mead and I'm getting 1.20? I hope I'm wrong with that because I can taste alcohol in it. Damn thing fermented for like 4 months. It is sweet as hell but tastes like mead. This is my first mean. Maybe I am looking at the wrong part of the hydrometer? It's one that cam with a kit. It is reading 1.20 in the Desert Wine Section.

Click to expand...

Could this be another misread hydrometer? Sounds like it could be 1.020?

biochemedic said:

Could this be another misread hydrometer? Sounds like it could be 1.020?

Click to expand...

definetelty, did not see a zero there. I don't know. I can taste the alcohol in it. I must be reading something wrong. Thats all I can think

If all else fails, find a pic of the hydrometer and draw an arrow on it.

scottyg354 said:

definetelty, did not see a zero there. I don't know. I can taste the alcohol in it. I must be reading something wrong. Thats all I can think

Click to expand...

Hydrometers are read to three decimal places. Water is considered 1.000. A hydrometer that reads "20" is 20 points higher or 1.020. A reading of "5" is 1.005, not 1.5.

I'll take a picture. I've been home brewing beer for almost two years just didn't know if a
Mead would read different on the hydrometer.

17 pounds of honey should be fine in a five gallon batch

I plugged this into a calculator and got:


I have three hydrometer and none of them read the same...

Calibrate it in some distilled water....

BUT:

I think you are alright

DPBISME said:

17 pounds of honey should be fine in a five gallon batch

I plugged this into a calculator and got:

OG 1.089
FG 1.022
ABV 8.6 %​

Click to expand...

You might want to check your numbers. I calculate a 1.122 OG with 17 lbs in a 5 gallon batch. That is also what the OP got with a hydrometer. Not sure where your FG came from.

GinKings said:

You might want to check your numbers. I calculate a 1.122 OG with 17 lbs in a 5 gallon batch. That is also what the OP got with a hydrometer. Not sure where your FG came from.

Click to expand...

I just tossed in 17 pounds of honey in to the Tasty Brew on-line calculator...

Well?? I think that's what I did... but I have never used it for mead... I just toss those together and they taste the way they taste...

Happy Brewing.

DPBISME said:

I just tossed in 17 pounds of honey in to the Tasty Brew on-line calculator...

Well?? I think that's what I did... but I have never used it for mead... I just toss those together and they taste the way they taste...

Happy Brewing.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna guess you entered the honey as you would grain. Their default is 75% efficiency for mashing grain. So, you got an OG that was only 75% of what it should have been.

GinKings said:

I'm gonna guess you entered the honey as you would grain. Their default is 75% efficiency for mashing grain. So, you got an OG that was only 75% of what it should have been.

Click to expand...

Agreed...

The problem here is the one gallon plus five pounds of wildflower honey. Honey typically has a 1.5 - 2.0 / 1 ratio of weight with water. If you dumped a one gallon container plus five pounds of honey, you most likely threw 17 - 21 lbs. of honey into this batch (not the water weight of 8 + 5 = 13).

Arrrggghh. Damn iPad app. I was trying to say that the volume of the container of honey does not equal its weight, so a gallon container would likely be 12-16 lbs of honey, plus the five you added. This would make a must sufficiently sweet to end up with the FG you claim, I think. I dunno why it has stuck though, as it seems it should've fallen more even with my extreme scenario.

At 1.200 I would expect the yeast to have some difficulty even starting a fermentation.