Extract kit need extra pound of sugar. Is table sugar frowned upon for this?

Will using table sugar for the recommended pound addition to the extract kit be okay? Or will it produce an off taste?

I added 1 lb of table sugar to my beer and came out great. People do it all the time. Some even prime with it at bottling.

It's totally fine. Some Belgian styles have 20% of their fermentables from table sugar.

Awesome. Next question then, could I go ahead and add an extra 2 lbs instead of the recommended 1 lb to boost abv?

Short answer is yes you can. But if you go too high you could start to make it taste cidery. Like mentioned already a Belgian ales might be upwards of 20% of the frementables. But in an American pale ale you might not want to add more than 5-10%.
The other thing to think about is how high of a OG you want. If you start asking about how about 3lbs or 4 or 5.... then you might start running into other issues like yeast nutrients or too much alcohol for the yeast.
Without a recipe its hard to say.

It is going to be a nut brown ale extract kit. I was only thinking about the possibilitity of adding 2 lbs rather than 1 lb. But that was only an idea I was curious about, but I have no idea how it would effect it because I am still very new to brewing. I assume that as long as the yeast that I use can handle the extra abv then it should ferment it all out and not result in a sweeter version of the normal kit. Is this true?

Throw in some DME like a pound to keep from thinning the beer out and the extra DME will give you another .5 to .7%

Okay, I didn't think of DME. I didn't want to use LME because I have to buy 3.3 lbs at a time but the DME is a good idea, thanks!

There are a few brews I make that I add 1 lb of DME and .5 lb of table sugar just to up the ABV and they all turn out good.

As some will say and I agree if you thin the beer out with too much sugar you loose that mouth feel of the beer, it's well I guess thinner tasting. Almost watered down I guess you could say it simply loses it's flavor.

So I could add 1.5 lbs sugar and 1 lb DME? Kits calls for 1 lb sugar so it would be an extra 1 lb DME and extra 0.5 lb sugar and it should turn out okay?

Hi Everyone- I'm relatively new to brewing, I've done about 6 batches and always follow the recipe kit exactly. This time i'm making the Liberty Cream Ale from MW and I want to up the ABV a little so I was planning to add 1 lb of honey, is this a good idea?

Any advice appreciated!

Also if anyone has made this kit before, what did you think of it and is the flavor good? I don't want a super light beer, so if I need to add extra hops what should I add?

Cheers!

newbrew129 said:

Hi Everyone- I'm relatively new to brewing, I've done about 6 batches and always follow the recipe kit exactly. This time i'm making the Liberty Cream Ale from MW and I want to up the ABV a little so I was planning to add 1 lb of honey, is this a good idea?

Any advice appreciated!

Also if anyone has made this kit before, what did you think of it and is the flavor good? I don't want a super light beer, so if I need to add extra hops what should I add?

Cheers!

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I believe the recommendation for honey is add it around the last 10 mins of the boil.

1lb will give you a good boost, just add it at flameout, the residual heat is enought to kill the wild yeast, boiling it you lose the delicate flavor of the honey! Also go for orange blossom or something floral not your standard generic brand.

Remember to cut back on your priming as well, whenever I use honey and prime as normal it's overcarbed so now I cut back a third and it's spot in.

Bretheren said:

1lb will give you a good boost, just add it at flameout, the residual heat is enought to kill the wild yeast, boiling it you lose the delicate flavor of the honey! Also go for orange blossom or something floral not your standard generic brand.

Remember to cut back on your priming as well, whenever I use honey and prime as normal it's overcarbed so now I cut back a third and it's spot in.

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Really? Ok, I'll keep that in mind! Thanks!

ME_Brewski said:

So I could add 1.5 lbs sugar and 1 lb DME? Kits calls for 1 lb sugar so it would be an extra 1 lb DME and extra 0.5 lb sugar and it should turn out okay?

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If you post the original recipe we can give you better help. You can add whatever you want to your beer. However, adding anything could bring your beer out of balance and then you will not be making a beer like you originally intended.