Vanilla Wheat Question

I ordered the Vanilla Weizen from HomebrewHeaven. If I were wanting to up the Alc% would adding 1lb of light dry malt extract at the beginning of the boil help? I think I read this somewhere but not sure if that was true.

Thanks

tjstromquist said:

I ordered the Vanilla Weizen from HomebrewHeaven. If I were wanting to up the Alc% would adding 1lb of light dry malt extract at the beginning of the boil help? I think I read this somewhere but not sure if that was true.

Thanks

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anything that adds more fermentable sugar to the wort will result in more alcohol in the beer. additional extract is probably the best thing to use (as opposed to corn sugar) since it adds both alcohol AND beer flavor.

1 lb of extract will give you a good abv bump (about 0.8%, I think) and probably won't upset the balance of the recipe too much.

-walker

To somewhat further this question...
When is adding more fermentable sugar too much? Stated differently, when does the wort reach the "Crabtree effect" point for yeasts? And, is this really even an issue if you use a yeast starter?

Another question...do different sugars boost the alcohol content without really overdoing the body or viscosity of the beer? (is there a sugar that is almost fully used by the yeast in most instances and produces mostly just CO2 and alcohol?)

thanks

cdew4545 said:

Another question...do different sugars boost the alcohol content without really overdoing the body or viscosity of the beer? (is there a sugar that is almost fully used by the yeast in most instances and produces mostly just CO2 and alcohol?)

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I think that's pretty-much the role of rice sugars in American macro lagers: to add fermentables without addding any body or flavor. That's one of the reasons that style of beer tastes the way it does: not a lot of body or flavor, very crisp.

Corn sugar is another one that will ferment out completely and not add to the body. I've added DME to a few "recipies" to up the gravity. 1 lb. of DME will add ~.5%.
Cheers

I found that adding two lbs of honey for a five gallon batch works wonders. Boosts that AC, helps with head retention and body, and if you boil it for the whole time, no real honey taste in your brew.

Brewed the Vanilla Weizen yesterday, went well. Added 1lb Munton Light DME at boil, also add one vanilla bean to boil (cut, split and scrapped into boil) for a little extra vanilla. Planning on adding one into secondary as well. Tasted it before pitching the yeast and it had a great taste! OG came out 1.060. It is a little darker that I expected it to be though...maybe the extra DME? The air lock has been bubbling like crazy since late yesterday afternoon.