OG Reading Too High?

[Satokad]

Hello Folks,

I just put together a mead with the following recipe for a 1 gallon batch:

-3lbs Clover Honey
-Spring water as needed to get to 1 gallon
-1 gallon carboy
-1 airlock
-1 bung
-Yeast Nutrient
-Yeast (Lavlin K1-V1116)

Where I found this, the recipe said the OG should be around 1.095. I bought a new hydrometer that goes higher than my beer one, and it read at 1.192. Pretty sure I'm reading this right, and the color coding on the hydrometer said I was in dessert wine territory. Everything else I've brewed so far, whether beer or mead, has been right around the listed OG and FG.
Is something amiss, or can a traditional honey mead go that high?
The only two things that I did that were not exactly the same as the recipe were that I may have been a few ounces short on water as I was trying to make sure there was enough headspace to avoid another bung blow-out, and I did not add yeast energizer, only nutrient.
I did the gravity reading before pitching the yeast which is my understanding for when it should be done.
Thanks.

 

[GaBrewZoo]

You must be reading something wrong. From my calculations, if your OG was that high for one gallon, you would have had to use 5.5-6 pounds of honey. And your ABV would get to about 25%, if it could go that high, which I doubt. With 3 pounds, my calculations say your OG should be around 1.105 and your ABV will end between 10 and 14 depending on your yeast and how low it finishes.

 

[Satokad]

You must be reading something wrong. From my calculations, if your OG was that high for one gallon, you would have had to use 5.5-6 pounds of honey. And your ABV would get to about 25%, if it could go that high, which I doubt. With 3 pounds, my calculations say your OG should be around 1.105 and your ABV will end between 10 and 14 depending on your yeast and how low it finishes.

You're right. I just went back and looked at it again. I have no idea what I was thinking...or seeing. I must be more tired than I thought. It was 1.102. Sorry for being such a dumba**. Good thing I didn't have any brain surgery to perform this evening.
Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[GaBrewZoo]

No problem. Hope it turns out good.

 

[bernardsmith]

Even without an hydrometer you can use a rule of thumb that if you have dissolved 1 lb of honey in water to make 1 gallon the honey will raise the gravity of the water by 35 points. Any reading you get that suggests a wildly different figure means that either the reading you took is wrong or you have not used the volumes and/or materials you thought you used in the ways you thought you used them.