Can I use priming sugar to boost alcohol content?

One I started kegging my brew i have all these extra priming sugar packs. Can i use them to add alcohol? I know "alcohol boosters" packs are basically just corn sugar so I am assuming I can.

So I have 25 oz's of priming. Can I add that much? Add it to the end of the boil? Will it effect the flavor?

I will be making an "Arrogant Bastard" clone. Estimated OG 1.073, est FG 1.015-1.026. Using WLP001.

It will dry out the beer a bit, which in a big beer is probably OK. It'll boost the ABV by 1.5 to 2 points. End of boil is fine.

frazier said:

It will dry out the beer a bit, which in a big beer is probably OK. It'll boost the ABV by 1.5 to 2 points. End of boil is fine.

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Thanks for the help. I think i will just go with 15 to start..

Yay Beer brewing Sunday! Anything better? Football and beer.

I also wondered this, so I calculated it for dextrose, using the molecular weights of dextrose & ethanol, density of ethanol, and reaction equation (1 dextrose --> 2 ethanol + 2 CO2)

A simplified formula for this is:
Additional alc content = 0.48 x (oz of dextrose added) / (US gal of beer)

So for 25 g of sugar in 5 gal of beer, you would increase your alc content by 2.4%, assuming all of that extra dextrose is consumed.

I'm new to brewing but my background is chemistry. There could be other factors that affect this (eg alcohol tolerance of your yeast), but this formula represents the theoretical maximum alcohol content you could get.

I primed my first (and only thus far) 6 gal batch with 4 oz of sugar and got an additional alc cont of 0.1% (formula says I could get up to 0.32). This is after about 3 weeks of conditioning at 16C. Maybe it's not finished consuming that sugar; I can't say at this point as I don't have the experience in that dept yet.

clemistry said:

I also wondered this, so I calculated it for dextrose, using the molecular weights of dextrose & ethanol, density of ethanol, and reaction equation (1 dextrose --> 2 ethanol + 2 CO2)

A simplified formula for this is:
Additional alc content = 0.48 x (oz of dextrose added) / (US gal of beer)

So for 25 g of sugar in 5 gal of beer, you would increase your alc content by 2.4%, assuming all of that extra dextrose is consumed.

I'm new to brewing but my background is chemistry. There could be other factors that affect this (eg alcohol tolerance of your yeast), but this formula represents the theoretical maximum alcohol content you could get.

I primed my first (and only thus far) 6 gal batch with 4 oz of sugar and got an additional alc cont of 0.1% (formula says I could get up to 0.32). This is after about 3 weeks of conditioning at 16C. Maybe it's not finished consuming that sugar; I can't say at this point as I don't have the experience in that dept yet.

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Is that increase in alcohol based on a SG reading or a lab test? It may be that the variables affecting SG make very small changes difficult to measure accurately.

Use this (http://www.rooftopbrew.net/abv.php) to calculate ABV based on OG & FG. When estimating OG priming sugar has ~46 PPG.

Beersmith says 16oz(1lb) of Corn sugar(Dextrose) would raise you about 1.5% ABV per 5 gallons if added after the boil.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Beersmith says 1oz of Corn sugar(Dextrose) would raise you about 1.5% ABV per 5 gallons if added after the boil.

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No way. Something's got to be wrong there. 1oz of dextrose = 1.5% abv in 5 gal?

Double_D said:

No way. Something's got to be wrong there. 1oz of dextrose = 1.5% abv in 5 gal?

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Thanks...i meant to say 1#...fixed

FuzzeWuzze said:

Beersmith says 1oz of Corn sugar(Dextrose) would raise you about 1.5% ABV per 5 gallons if added after the boil.

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I don't have time to research it, but I can easily say that is not even close...

You prime your beer with anywhere from 3-5+oz. of corn sugar before bottling, so by your statement, you would automatically boost your abv by 4.5-7.5% simply by bottling.

EDIT: I would agree with the 1 lb versus oz

Yea yea, its been fixed I dont think my hand to mind connection has ever had to think of corn sugar in amounts larger than a few oz so thats what came out

FuzzeWuzze said:

Beersmith says 16oz(1lb) of Corn sugar(Dextrose) would raise you about 1.5% ABV per 5 gallons if added after the boil.

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Double_D said:

No way. Something's got to be wrong there. 1oz of dextrose = 1.5% abv in 5 gal?

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I just messed with Beersmith. 1 pound of dextrose increased my recipe 1%.

edit": also too slow in typing.

helibrewer said:

Is that increase in alcohol based on a SG reading or a lab test? It may be that the variables affecting SG make very small changes difficult to measure accurately.

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It's based on a quick n dirty unverified lab test that I did. My value before priming was similar to the value from the hydrometer tests. I also tested a commercial microbrew and found that my value was about 0.5% higher than on the bottle, for what that's worth.

I just added 5 oz I priming sugar to 5.2 gallons of wort and got an increase from 1.03 SG to 1.04 SG. Good thing to because now I am in my target range for this pale ale. Does anyone know if this will affect taste?