Coopers Home Brew fixing low alcohol

I am brewing my second batch of Coopers Ale. I think I messed up and didnt add enought sugar. It has been in the brewing vessle for 8 days and it is still producing bubbles in the air lock, however I did a hydrometer reading and it is only at 1.15 SG.

Question, can I add additional sugar or something to bring up the alcohol level at this point?

Did you take an OG reading? You can add more sugar at this point (you want to boil it with water and cool it though) but I recommend against it, just let it go and chalk it up as a lesson for next time.

if you did the reading after 8 days the majority of fermentables did their job, so I wouldn't go by that. You should always take an OG reading before pitching yeast.

I think it is 2 lbs. of sugar if you go by the cans directions, or near equivalent of DME. That is probably around 5 percent alcohol for a 5.5 gal batch (guessing) although it is ment for 6 gal I believe it is like 4.5 abv for that volume.

1.15????
guessing this is a typo, or did you forget to add water?

Sometimes it is good to make a beer you can drink all day...
Or if you really want you can boil and add sugar(it will change your beer tho)

I think he means 1.015, lol I overlooked that when I read the post and figured it would be a low amount.

Yes I did mean 1.015 (sorry for the typo). I read somewhere I could also try adding dry malt extract instead of sugar to fix the problem.

I just bottled the Coopers Real Ale and I had used 2 packs of Malt this time instead of the usual corn sugar. It made a big difference to the smoothness, It tastes better than anything I made so far. I was told here in the forum it would give me better flavor but a lower alcohol level. If you added 2 Lbs of sugar to start then I'd leave it a lone.
But try a blend of malt and sugar for the next batch. The malt is the cure for for what "Ales" Coopers.

Before you add anything, we need to know the OG. 1.015 doesn't mean low alcohol if the OG was in the normal range. That SG seems to be pretty close to being done. Make sure that you aren't looking at the potential percentage on the hydrometer. That scale isn't really used.

I really like the coopers stout brew. I used a pound of brown sugar, dextrose and maple syrup. Made 4.5 gal I believe and came out really good.

That FG is not at all out of the question for an extract brew. (We'd still love to hear your OG if you measured it) I just had an IPA finish up at 1.020, which was about 5-8 points higher than I had hoped, and it's far and away my tastiest beer yet. I wish the ABV was a point higher (yeah, I like to get buzzed, sue me ) but I'm much happier having this super-tasty beer that I am very proud of, than if I had risked screwing it up by adding more fermentables late in the game. And uh, it still "works", trust me!

If I were in your shoes, I'd wait another week or two to let it condition in the primary for a bit, then bottle it and enjoy. If you want a stronger beer, brew one next time rather than try screwing around with this one.

Well thanks guys for all the pointers. I actually did end up adding a cup of honey and a cup of sugar last weekend. It contunued brewing all week (2nd week now combined) and it smells great.. It is slowing down now and I tasted it last night and it tastes good. I am going to bottle it this weekend. I will let you know how my brew experiment goes in a couple weeks after it sits in the bottle and conditions.

It was my faultt in the first place. I was looking at the hydrometer wrong.. hehe oh well...

Next time I know better. Hey we live and learn.. I sure it will be drinkable.

Thanks

Boil a quart of water then add 4 to 7 lbs of Honey then add to fermenter. Alcohol will come up nicely.

I like using a lot of honey .I feed fermentations by adding doses of slightly diluted honey . Regularly feeding your fermentation breeds strains of higher alcohol tolerant yeasts.

Hankins2010 said:

I like using a lot of honey .I feed fermentations by adding doses of slightly diluted honey . Regularly feeding your fermentation breeds strains of higher alcohol tolerant yeasts.

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That be good in the coopers dark ale? How about chocolate, or both?