Couldn't get an OG with my hydrometer

Did you top off your fermenter with water? In my experience, sometimes you can get your wort poorly mixed and end up taking a very concentrated sample, which will give you a bad reading (on the very high side).

 

Well, someone with more experience will have to help you out here, in that case

 

What temperature is the wort that you're measuring? If it's too cold it could result in a higher reading.

 

I think most hydrometers are calibrated to 60F, so that shouldn't make a significant difference. What does the hydrometer read when placed in water?

 

It's sideways.

 

Couple things:

1) Check and make sure your expected OG is in the range the hydrometer is designed to measure (Preferably towards the middle of range); NB has been selling hydrometer sets with 3 hydrometers, each covering a specific range of gravities.

2) Did you leave your hydrometer in sanitizer for an extended period of time? If so, it probably broke... You can generate micro scale cracks in the hydrometer if left in liquid for extended time, which will result in non-sensical densities.

3) Check the density of water and if thats ok, make up a sugar solution of a known gravity. If that reads off, then either the hydrometer is damaged, or your math is bad

 

On a more serious note, it appears that there is a lot of trub in the sample (i.e. remnants of hop leaves, small specks of grain that made it through the mash tun). I don't know if you took the sample before or after you added the yeast either. In any case, all of those substances will affect the viscosity of the wort and can greatly change your reading.

 

Edit: now I feel like the tool

 

That looks like one of those "final gravity" hydrometers that only goes from 0.990 - 1.020 to me. Like this one....

http://morebeer.com/products/hydrometer-final-gravity.html

 

We have a winner!

 

Those substances do not effect the density of the liquid in which they are suspended. Specific gravity is a measure of density. The only way they would effect the gravity reading is if they were not "displaceable" i.e. they became stuck to the hydrometer or trapped beneath it, or if they settled on it weighing it down.

 

Never before observed...gravity-defying OG.

 

My first though was the tube wasn't filled up. Thank heavens I didn't post that like some sort of ass before the collective "wisdom" of the intertubes solved it...