Mis-read o.g. Is there a fix

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Pinchecharlie

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I decided to jump right in with some gallon batches of mead as Iam brand new to brewing. I have a christmass spice BOOM that I started with eight others two days ago. I tried to follow the instructions the best I could . I must have read the hydrometer really wrong when I started because as I was checking today to see if I was ready for the sna's it was higher than what it was supposed to be when I started oops ! So it was supposed to be 1.100 and after two days it's 1.200 (almost I am still struggling to read it with foam and poor eyesight and inexperience) so in my mind it has way to much sugars? When I was mixing other batches I realized that to get accurate honey weights was a bit difficult but as common sense would dictate add honey =higher . More water=lower. So Iam ok with a screw up but what will this do? Too much sugar and the yeast for a recipe for less= really cloyingly sweet ? Or massive abv% and ruined? Can you simply poor out some and add water to lower it or is it much too late because the yeast is working and will be lost? So bad start on that one anyway and if I read it so wrong well then we'll see on the others (two where right but not feeling confident ). I would like to understand this problem as much as see if there is a remedy so I would appreciate your advice . Thanks in advance for your reply. The Christmass BOOM recipe can be found on denardbrewing.com
Thanks again
Christmas spice BOOM
Cyeser BOOM
Perfect BOOM
Ken Schramms dry show mead
Medium show mead
Sweet mead
Brochet mead
Apple pie cider
And homemade root beer hah!
Hope one of them will come out!
 
Did you add honey by weight or volume? How much did you add?

I have a suspicion you are reading the hydrometer wrong. A gravity of 1.200 is 5 lbs of honey in a gallon!
 
I added the honey by weight . Since I sell honey ( 4th year beekeeper) I kinda can guesstimate honey by volume of container. I actually weighed it with a scale just not absolutely accurately because it was difficult considering I was working from a bottling tank (175lb tank ) and it wasn't easy to make small adjustments. Yeah Iam positive I got within a few ounces of 3lbs . So maybe your right and I just can't read the tool properly . I'll do it again and post a picture . Thanks charlie
 
Well this is what it reads when I put some in a sample tube . Much easier to read but I obviously got it wrong and now I remember what I did! I put almost two cups of tea in the gallon because Iam dumb! Well crap what happens when the sugars are to high for the recipe? Can you adjust it at this point? Thanks and sorry I botched your recipe ! Good news is I still have 160lbs of honey left so try try again!

image.jpg
 
Give that hydrometer a good spin to detach those bubbles. If it's fermenting, you should be good. If there is too much sugar for the yeast to handle, they'll shut down & you'll have a stuck fermentation. At that point you would need to either dilute the must or pitch a strain that is more able to deal with such a high OG must. But like I said, if it's fermenting, you should be good to go.
Regards, GF.
 
Hmmm. You look on track to me. 3 lbs of honey in 1 gallon is an SG of 1.12. The gravity in your pic is 1.11. That means the yeast are dropping the gravity as planned. That SG is no problem for Wyeast 1388. Relax. Have a homebrew.
 

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