Estimate original gravity after the fact?

kapbrew13 said:

Plug your numbers into a brew program. That should give you est og.

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onipar said:

I did some searching around and found this:

Dry malt extract (DME) produces about 44 degrees per pound per gallon of water and liquid malt extract produces about 35 °.


To determine how much malt extract to use to reach a predetermined starting gravity, use this simple formula: (degrees of extract) x pounds of malt used by gallons of beer to be brewed. For example, if we use 6 pounds of liquid malt extract to make 5 gallons of beer, we would have 35 x 6 = 210... so, 210 divided by 5 (gallons of beer to be brewed) = 42, or a starting gravity of 1.042.

So for you I guess it'd be 35 x 6.6 = 231 / 5? = 46.2

Gravity = 1.046

That's assuming you made 5 gallons of wort and didn't add any other fermentables. Also, I'm fairly certain the "degrees" of different types of LME will vary, but I couldn't find the specific data for Briess Golden Light (3.3lb) LME, though I'm sure someone else might know.

Also, if I'm completely wrong (which is possible), please someone let us know.

EDIT: Okay, I did find that the default PPG (degrees) for Briess Golden Light LME is in fact 34. So the estimated OG would be 1.044, or rounded up to 1.045 (because the equation gave us 44.88).

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idiosyncronaut said:

Wow, great information! I really appreciate it. I'll try to plug my numbers into your formula. There was actually a bit more to my recipe, I steeped some grains, added some 1lb of dry extract and a few specialty malts as well.

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