Racking to seconary

I'm on my first batch, it's a "Honey Brown Ale", I think I'm ready to rack it to my secondary. The Hydrometer is at 1.010, roughly. I would like to boost the alcohol level, but I don't know how much of what to add to get to 1.050... I would like to be at 6% ABV.

Anyone have any suggestion of what to add to boost the alcohol content of my Honey Brown

What was the hydrometer reading before you pitched the yeast (OG)? You said your FG is 1.010. (OG - FG) * 131 will be your alcohol content by volume.

Why the 1.050 number? Usually any fermentables are added before the yeast it pitched.

I didn't have a hydrometer when I started... I was told I didn't need one, so i don't know what it was when I pitched. According to Beersmith calculating my ingredients, it should have been at 1.077, but I don't know that for sure.

As I stated this is my first batch and I'm learning as I go, I read and was told that if I want to boost the ABV to add Dry Malt or sugar to the secondary. My goal was to creat a brew to be at 6% ABV.

Ok! If Beersmith thought your OG would be 1.077,and it's now sitting at 1.010, then you currently have:
(1.077 - 1.010) * 131 = 8.7% ABV -- definitely above the 6% mark.

The secondary fermenter is really just a clearing vessel, as no fermentation should happen there. One usually only racks to the secondary if they would like their beer to clear up some more (or to free up the primary to make another batch). Other than priming sugar at bottling time, all your sugars/dry malt should be added before you pitch the yeast.

It is also not really necessary to move it to a secondary at all, and people argue to no end about it around here. I've tried leaving beers in the primary for 3 weeks, and I've tried racking to the secondary for a couple of weeks and don't really notice all that much of a difference.

How long has it been in the primary for?

I agree regarding going to the secondary. I would say that my beer is clearer when I use the secondary, but tastewise nothing really changes for me. I prefer to rack to the secondary, giving up some risks for contamination/oxydation to get a clearer beer.

Where did you get your recipe? Is it a kit or did you design it yourself? If a kit, it will likely give you estimates on gravity and thereby ABV. Otherwise the 1.077 seems to me high but I'm still a noob so what do I know? It wouldn't surprise me however if OG was more like 1.055 for that beer which would put you in the 6% range. It's a moot point though really because without the actual OG reading, you can never know.

Whatever it is now it what it will be. There isn't much you can do to "boost" the ABV at this point.

If I were you, I would bottle it, let it condition a good while and then give it a taste. I may not be a professional homebrewer yet but I am a professional beer drinker (he said with pride) and I can pretty much tell a 4% from a 5% from a 6% when I drink it. You may be able to do the same and it may the only way for you to have any idea how much alchohol is in there.

Dennis

Thanks for everyone's input, it's very helpful.... As far as my hydrometer reading, I could be wrong, I'm a noob so I definitely am not above making a mistake.

I have 2 hydrometers that were a gift from my father from when he made his own brew 20 years ago. 1 is for grain alcohol or distilled alcohols that shows "proof", the other is the hydrometer for brew.

As far as my reciepe goes.... it's for the most part my own, put together from others that I have read, it's as follow...

5 gallon batch:
1 lbs of Breiss Amber Dry Malt Grains
1/2 lbs. Breiss Crystal Grains
1 lbs. Amber Dry Malt Extract
4 lbs. Muntons Nut Brown Ale Extract
2 lbs. Corn Sugar
2 lbs. Pure Honey
The yeast.... I can't remember what kind, it was a blue package for "Brown Ale"

I'm only using a secondary for clarity.

nakros said:

Ok! If Beersmith thought your OG would be 1.077,and it's now sitting at 1.010, then you currently have:
(1.077 - 1.010) * 131 = 8.7% ABV -- definitely above the 6% mark.

Click to expand...

That's a different formula from what I'm used to, but pretty close.

Mine is:
ABW = 76.08 *(1.077-1.010)/(1.775-1.010) = 6.66%
ABV = 6.66 *(1.010/.794) = 8.47%



ABW = 76.08*(OG-FG)/(1.775-FG)
ABV = ABW*(FG/.794)

Or if you don't need ABW:
ABV = 95.82*(OG-FG)/(1.775-FG)*FG

I bet you're already at 6%, and I wouldn't add anything to it at this point. Let it age a couple weeks in secondary and bottle it up.

You're not using the potential alcohol % scale on the hydrometer are you? That scale really means nothing to a beer brewer anyway, it's for measuring wine before fermentation. For us beer guys the specific gravity reading is the only real useful scale on a triple scale.

Take a gravity reading on your next batch before adding the yeast. Then use the FG reading to calculate your ABV using the formula that nakros gave. You'll have a pretty accurate measure of your true alcohol % that way.