making beer stronger

I have a 10 gallon batch of american light fermenting that is to watered down im curiuos about the steps i should take to make it stronger

Dump some vodka in it.

What was the OG?

American Light...isn't that supposed to be watered down?!? I kid I kid can you post your recipe? That would help troubleshoot. If you are doing extract, its possible you put too much top off water in. However if its still fermenting, you may be fine. Once you carbonate, it may be much better...but I've never done a light beer, so not sure how it should taste in fermentation. Adding sugar would be one thing to consider, but there may be some better options. I'm sure others may be able to help more with this style. Good luck!

I second chapa. You could keep the vodka on the side though. It definately won't make it taste better..

couldn't he just mash a heavier wort and add a little of that in? it would take longer to finish though

To make it even easier it could be blended with a store bought pale ale or something.

scuba1 said:

I have a 10 gallon batch of american light fermenting that is to watered down im curiuos about the steps i should take to make it stronger

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You can't spell making and curious, I'd say your beer is already strong enough.

Next time brew a higher gravity beer....

Is your beer carbed up yet? If it's not then your beer isn't watered down, it's just not done yet. Carbonation will go along way to giving it the appearance of more body and flavor. So many new brewers come on here saying the same thing, when in reality their beer just isn't ready yet.

Since you're saying it's still fermenting, I'm betting the same thing. There's nothing wrong with the beer. You're just not experiencing it finished yet.

So just see this beer through, and enjoy it. It will be much better than you think it is. And in the future rather than thinking about making an existing beer stronger, or fruitier or hoppier or whatever, BREW THAT RECIPE/KIT TO BEGIN WITH.

^^ he's always right..

What was the recipe?

Double_D said:

^^ he's always right..

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smart man

the og was 1.020 not enough so i was thinking i would put some wort in the fermentor right now of a new batch to get the gravity up.

or should i do a secondary with the new wort

scuba1 said:

the og was 1.020 not enough so i was thinking i would put some wort in the fermentor right now of a new batch to get the gravity up.

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scuba1 said:

or should i do a secondary with the new wort

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Unless you didn't put any extract in the beer, I don't think 1.020 can be correct. What was the recipe, and what was the volume you made?

Don't secondary with new wort until you know what you have with the first one.

scuba1 said:

the og was 1.020 not enough so i was thinking i would put some wort in the fermentor right now of a new batch to get the gravity up.

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Yeah that seems way too low for even a light beer. A quick google and they should be about 1.030 - 1.035. You should see how much extract you will need to add, based on how much volume you have, and what your og was(that gravity WAS right after brewing right?-not after fermentation?). Use an online brew calculator or beersmith(highly recommended software), it comes with a free trial. My only hesitation is that since you were doing extract, and topped off with water, it may not have been mixed well enough to get an accurate reading...but if it REALLY tastes like water.......

If you add more wort, I'd add it to primary with all of your yeast, because even though the the yeast has probably fallen out of suspension, its still ready to go when it finds more fermentables! You could always ferment separately and mix them later. Either would probably work. And I'm sure either would also get you a more "full flavored" beer...which is what we're all after....right??

scuba1 said:

the og was 1.020 not enough so i was thinking i would put some wort in the fermentor right now of a new batch to get the gravity up.

Click to expand...

What's the real recipe...NOT your gravity reading.....Did you really intentionally choose a recipe with an OG ov 1.020? I've never seen a recipe that low...or did your hydrometer tell you it was 1.020????

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

If your target volume was correct, then it will be fine.

More than likely your true OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

Again it's another common mistake...You won't find many folks on here advocating adding anything more to your beer at this stage.....A beer recipe is about balance...if you added more sugars you're gonna through off the balance between malt and hops that this recipe was setup for. You can't just toss stuff together willy nilly and expect it to turn out.

That's why we advocate not trying to "fix" something at this stage...and seening the beer through...But again I'm wondering if your recipe truly was 1.020 or you think it is...and that you're blaming your thinness on it not being carbed...

We see stuff like this everyday from new brewers. And rarely is it what YOU think it is....

Post your recipe if you want our help.

Revvy said:

What's the real recipe...NOT your gravity reading.....Did you really intentionally choose a recipe with an OG ov 1.020? I've never seen a recipe that low...or did your hydrometer tell you it was 1.020????

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

If your target volume was correct, then it will be fine.

More than likely your true OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

Again it's another common mistake...You won't find many folks on here advocating adding anything more to your beer at this stage.....A beer recipe is about balance...if you added more sugars you're gonna through off the balance between malt and hops that this recipe was setup for. You can't just toss stuff together willy nilly and expect it to turn out.

That's why we advocate not trying to "fix" something at this stage...and seening the beer through...But again I'm wondering if your recipe truly was 1.020 or you think it is...and that you're blaming your thinness on it not being carbed...

We see stuff like this everyday from new brewers. And rarely is it what YOU think it is....

Post your recipe if you want our help.

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There is really no point in measuring OG in extract brews imo. You know your exact fermentables and volume thats far more accurate than a hydrometer.