drinking while brewing, now help me estimate O.G.

[kevind]

So say I'm making a Belgian Pale Ale, and I put the following fermentables into it:

6.6 lbs Briess Pilsen LME
2.6 lbs Muntons Light LME &
1 lbs Candi Sugar

which Beer Calculus says should give me an O.G. of 1.077. Then I look at that, and I begin to wonder if maybe I didn't mean to write down 3.3 Lbs of light LME, because where on earth would I get 2.6 pounds of LME? It comes in 3.3 lbs cans, or 1 or 6 lbs bulk at the homebrew shop. I must have meant 3.3. So adding the extra .7 lbs of LME give me a target O.G. of 1.083.

But here's the real problem: I did drink quite a bit of homebrew while brewing this beer, and say I forgot to measure the specific gravity until about 12 hours after pitching my yeast. The yeast, by the way, was 2 very old packs of Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale that were very active in the 2 pint size starters I made for them. When I did finally wake up and remember to take my specific gravity measurements I found it to be 1.072.

Now, what I want to know is how much could the specific gravity have fallen in those first 12 hours. Is 1.077 or 1.083 reasonable as an assume original gravity?

 

[passedpawn]

Don't drink while you brew. Seriously. It's my zeroth rule of brewing. That's why I start at sunup.

 

[maida7]

Don't drink while you brew. Seriously. It's my zeroth rule of brewing. That's why I start at sunup.

Don't listen to this guy. Brewing isn't brewing without drinking.

To answer your question: It really doesn't matter what the OG is. RDWHAHB

 

[kevind]

You sir, are a man of far greater self control than I.

 

[Gildog]

if your using a strong ale yeast you could see a drop from 1.083 to 1.072 in 12 hours, it just depends on how warm or cold you were storing it at. the fact that you used a starter also makes me think that it would have had an og of 1.083. i have seen a 10 point drop in gravity in around 12 hours when using an active yeast culture.

 

[kevind]

Thanks Gildog!