Newbie help. Starting specific gravity too high

[Aeroslonic]

Hey there! I made my first ever batchs yesterday, and something happened here.

Recipe #1:
3lbs of honey
3lbs of blackberries (they were frozen, I let them thaw out a bit and then mashed them up, put in a brewing bag).
Spring water (filled up the 1 gallon carboy until there was about two fingers width space left.
Used 1 gram of “Lalvin K1-V116” yeast. (Heated up 10ml of water to 95F, let sit for 20 mins).
Added 1.5g of Fermaid O.

Recipe #2:
Exact same as above, except used blueberries instead.
Also used 2.5g of yeast instead, as recipe I was following suggested that (and did the same on YouTube video). 25ml of water instead as well.

Now I took the specific gravity of each, and was wayyyy too high. It reads up to 1.160, mine were both above that. I added a bit more water to each, and then the specific gravity was 1.152 & 1.160.

I’m not sure what happened as I followed the recipe as written, and reread it a few times before and after as well as watched a bunch of videos.

Any thoughts as to why it was too high? Maybe I didn’t mix the honey/water well enough? Did I add too much honey?

Should I add more yeast to each? It’s been almost 24 hours and I don’t see any reactions in either.

I have another carboy available, but want to hold off before attempting another one.

Maybe I should’ve just made a simple mead with just honey as my first batch.

And help would be greatly appreciated! I’m very interested in exploring this hobby!!

Thanks!

 

[Aeroslonic]

Here’s a picture of them.

 

[Kickass]

I think your gravity readings might be off due to stratification. Honey can be hard to incorporate fully so if your sample consists of a glob of honey it’ll read high.

Honey is around 36ppg. 3 pounds in 1 gallon (3 x 36 = 108) should be around 1.108. I don’t take OG readings of my mead for this reason. I usually estimate OG then begin taking readings after fermentation has been underway. It’s not a perfect method but then again, stratified measurements are inaccurate.

 

[Aeroslonic]

Thanks!
I never thought of estimating the OG this way.

 

[Aeroslonic]

Update: definitely got some co2 bubbles! Guess the gas stopper was pushed in too far… was nice cleaning up blackberry juice on carpet stopper moved. Put 1.5g Fermaid O, repeat one more time tomorrow.

And bottles now resting in bucket, and paper towel covering top a little bit to protect from surprise splashes