How to raise alcohol content?

I just bought a recipe kit. What can i do to raise the alcohol content?

easiest thing is to add more fermentable sugars to the wort

you can do this by adding more malt extract- which is probably the best way

adding corn sugar will yield higher alcohol content and lighter body, adding tablee sugar will increase alcohol content but may cause off "cidery" flavors. Adding jsut sugar isn't really recommended for making good beer

Add some more fermentables. Like more extract. But you need to make sure your yeast can handle higher alchohol content some cant, so check on the yeast manufactures website.

See above reponses. You can also add honey, which is pretty much 100% fermentable from what I've heard.

You can also add bourbon. I'm adding a small amount to my Imperial Stout for flavor and to pump up the abv by 0.5%. It's a small amount, but it's true.

so do i just need to add more malt extract? can i just by more malt from the suppliers?

If you use more malt, you're going to need more hops! More hops! More hops!

wolfgre said:

so do i just need to add more malt extract? can i just by more malt from the suppliers?

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yes, just add more malt extract. yes. don't forget to use more hops!

Is the kit an all-in-one kit? Mr. Beer or some reasonable facsimile?

To get more alcohol, you need to add some more food for the yeast - some kind of sugar. You can add table or corn sugar at specific proportions or, better yet, add liquid or dry malt extract.

You'll find, though, that by adding sugar, the beer can - depending on how much you want to jack it up - become very dry and thin at best. At worst, it can make it taste terrible. It really depends on how much you add; the more non-malt based sugar that you add beyond about 15% of the total sugar will affect the quality. Nothing is easy in this craft.

1 lb. of sugar will increase the gravity by a little less that 10 points.

You'd be better off brewing it as is and then buying a higher gravity kit next time. When you just start dumping in fermentables to try to get a better buzz, you are messing with the balance of the recipe and it's not going to be the same beer. If you just want a cheap buzz, then go buy some cheap beer and get hammered.

so it would be easier to buy 2 reipies and put them into one batch... will this double my alcohol content. im sure that it is not that easy

When I first started brewing I would use recipe kits and then up the ante on the malts and hops, with great results. This would be in keeping with the recipe, but bigger. You'll be getting away from style but really you just want to make a bigger beer that tastes great so as long as you are not getting scientific about IBUs and calculations you really don't have to worry. Buying 2 recipes might get a little silly, try a barley wine or imperial stout kit so its already very high gravity?

as stated before the yeast will only tolerate so much and then just poop out and say to he** with that. so by doubling up the kits in one single batch, it'll have tons of malt and hops, but it will still only ferment to a certain alcohol percentage and will leave you with a lot of leftover sugar.

THe more important thing we need to understand is what you're really trying to do (more alcohol is the result, not what you're trying to do).

Do you have a 4% ABV kit and want to get it to around 5%, or do you have a cheap lager kit that you want to make 8% so you can get blasted easier?

If you want to just modify the kit to get a little more, then there's a process to it including upping the hops to match the additional fermentables and keep balance.

If you want to get wasted off a mr beer kit, then you can add sugar until you realize it tastes bad and in the end, it's just cheaper to buy a case of malt liquor.

I normally empty a fifth of rotgut vodka into my five gallon batches, post fermentation of course. This really helps to up the buzz factor!

i bought a IPA i think its between 5 and 6%

If you are just looking to get hammered and get there soon go get some cheap alcohol because a bigger beer (more alcohol) takes longer to ferment out and I am guessing you want to drink this sooner than later.

Homebrewing is more about quality taste than higher ABV.

If you cut down on the water, so you end up with 4-4.5 gallon, it will be more concentrated and the ABV should be slightly higher. But I could be wrong. On my red ale, I added a little but too much and came in a little lower on my abv than I expected.

Joker said:

If you are just looking to get hammered and get there soon go get some cheap alcohol because a bigger beer (more alcohol) takes longer to ferment out and I am guessing you want to drink this sooner than later.

Homebrewing is more about quality taste than higher ABV.

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+1 on that. Higher gravity beers need more time to ferment and then more time to carbonate and condition. Work on brewing good beer first and then worry about alcohol content later. If your first thought is how much alcohol you can have in something, you're better of buying some Steel Reserve and not wasting your time brewing the beer.

dont be a drunk. kiddn

but its your beer so feel free to try 'things'. my first brew I followed the recipie, and on my second,I started adding/changing things. but what has been posted is sound.

just dont get all crazy and you wont have to dump it out cuz its nasty.

quality first.

+1 to what everyone else has said + I am going to point a few items out.

1) Home brews, in my experiences tend to normally lean towards the "strong side" anyways. A normal BMC is about 4% ABV while home brews tend to be around 5% or a bit higher especially from extract kits.

The buzz IMO is a better higher quality buzz vs. store bought brews. (This has been discussed and may be 100% in my head but it is MY opinion...)

2) Alot of new brewers want to know exactly what you want to know. Try a search for Big beers and/or barley wines these are the higher abv brews. Be warned now they can be difficult to do and can be expensive to make; these are NEVER (at least that I have seen) recommended for a brewers 1st brews.

I will suggest to brew an extract batch or 2, then hop to a partial mash brew for a few (read Death Brewers guide stickied at the top of this section), then hop to All Grain and once you are AG brewing try a barley wine/ Big beer.

My 1st attempt at a "Big Beer", I ended up with a strong "imperial stout" I am sure it will taste ok but I missed my OG by a land slide. I basically ended up paying 2x's as much for a slightly stronger than average beer. This will NOT be a barley wine. I can not tell you how mad/disappointed I was. I later learned why this had happened and it was 100% MY fault!

FYI a barley wine for 5 gallons takes about 30 lbs of extract and at $10.00+ for 3lbs of extract well you are looking at around a $100.00 batch of brew!!! This WILL greatly be reduced once you change over to AG by almost 75%. This does not cover ANYTHING but the malts!!!

I wish you the best and hope you do get to brew some beers and see that it is as much fun to brew as it is to drink it!

Zamial said:

FYI a barley wine for 5 gallons takes about 30 lbs of extract

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Holey shamoley... AHS English Barleywine has only 10lbs of DME! Weaksauce...

if you just want to get slammed on prisonwine, buy a big sack of sugar - pour in a couple cans of hopped light extract beer kits for something vaguely beer-like - and pitch some 'super ABV' distiller's yeast to make yourself a nice cheap 25% ABV sugarwine in only 2 or 3 days! Extra points if you ferment it in a toilet. You might want to consider passing it through a carbon filter a few times to enhance it's drinkability, though...

You can class it up a bit by using honey instead of sugar and call it 'mead,' but like beer good mead takes a bit more work.

944play said:

Holey shamoley... AHS English Barleywine has only 10lbs of DME! Weaksauce...

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I think AHS may have a typo or 2 I do not think you can get 1.090 with 10 lbs of extract + a little extra for a 5 gallon batch...But I may be wrong I have been in the past...

prosper said:

if you just want to get slammed on prisonwine...

...You can class it up a bit by using honey instead of sugar and call it 'mead,' but like beer good mead takes a bit more work.

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and a stainless steel toilet....

Try getting a kit for something like an Old Ale/English Strong Ale, they taste great and can come in pretty high alcohol range.

Like this one http://beer-wine-brewing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_83&products_id=125 It sit's at 13.1% right out of the box. Just make sure you get a yeast that can handle that high of an alcohol content to go with it.

Try EdWort's apfelwein; huge threads on this forum.
strong cheap-a$$ stuff.

Zamial said:

I think AHS may have a typo or 2 I do not think you can get 1.090 with 10 lbs of extract + a little extra for a 5 gallon batch...But I may be wrong I have been in the past...





and a stainless steel toilet....

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10lbs of DME will hit 1.087 for a 5 gallon batch and 10lbs of LME will hit 1.072.

At 30lbs you're looking at 25%+ ABV.

30 pounds of 2-row in an all-grain mash would still get you some massive ABV - at 75% efficiency you'd be in the 1.160 range (for an expected ABV in the 15-18% ballpark)

prosper said:

if you just want to get slammed on prisonwine, buy a big sack of sugar - pour in a couple cans of hopped light extract beer kits for something vaguely beer-like - and pitch some 'super ABV' distiller's yeast to make yourself a nice cheap 25% ABV sugarwine in only 2 or 3 days! Extra points if you ferment it in a toilet. You might want to consider passing it through a carbon filter a few times to enhance it's drinkability, though...

You can class it up a bit by using honey instead of sugar and call it 'mead,' but like beer good mead takes a bit more work.

Click to expand...

haha