Boosting the ABV

Lets say I want to get slightly drunker by drinking the same amount of beer...The understanding I have come to is that you add sugar to your secondary. Do you add more yeast? and as far as sugar would it be a good idea to use some DME? I still want my beer to taste good and I want it to go up about 1%.

Now that I have some input, everyone seems to agree that I should "make a bigger beer". What does that mean? I add more LME to the recipe? Won't that make the beer sweeter or maltier?Should I add more hops to compensate?

No need to add any more yeast. Once you add the sugar/DME/etc you can just lightly swirl the carboy/bucket a few rotations to get some of the yeast back in suspension and they will start chomping away. Be aware however that you might end up with a dryer beer (lower FG) than you had originally planned.

A better idea would to just brew another beer with a higher OG!

That's what I was thinking, why not add it to the wort?

I agree with dMclaren and orfy, just try brewing a "bigger" beer your next batch. Once my brew is in the fermenter, I don't mess with it unless I'm adding hops for dry hopping or sometimes oak chips for an IPA.

agreeing with all the others, you should probably just brew a bigger beer next time. hhowever a true secondary fermentation can be done by putting sugars in the secondary. watch out for what type of sugar you use though-no table sugar, brown sugar is ok but still a little strange...i'd use invert sugar which you can find at your LHBS under that name or possibly listed as alcohol booster. this leaves no off flavors and will boost your beer however much you wwant. i'd use it in the boil of your next brew.

IMO the the local shops usually charge a fair amount of change for invert sugar. So, if you do go that route, consider THIS as an option.

I added about 5oz's of corn sugar to the boil of the amber ale I did yesterday and it's up about .5% I assume. The OG was supposed be 1.045, but I ordered the 1% boost with my LME, then my addition of corn sugar. My OG came to 1.060 so if it comes down to 1.010 I should be around 6.5% in theory :cross:

Just out of curiosity...for the people adding corn sugar (or other sugars) to their recipes to up the ABV: why not just add another pound of DME? Are you specifically trying to lower the body and flavor? I'm not following, but that's not unusual in and of itself.

Corn sugar is cheaper than DME. Much cheaper.

I've noticed that a lot of people here brew seriously 'big' beers - >8% is not unusual. Why? Am I the only one that brews 'normal' (~5%) beers?

When adding more malt to up the alcohol content be sure to compensate with additional hops or your beer will be sweeter.

Shambolic said:

Corn sugar is cheaper than DME. Much cheaper.

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A pound of DME is roughly 3x more expensive than corn sugar, but it's still only $4 (on average). For 5g of beer that's about 7.5 cents per 12oz bottle. To me, that's well worth it for the extra body and flavor plus no possibility of the chance of off-flavors associated with corn sugars. I've added brown sugar as an adjunct before when I was willing and in fact wanted to trade body for the flavor, but I don't think I'd ever toss in corn sugar instead of a more flavorful fermentable substance for anything other than priming.

I picked up 3 lbs of DME last night and added it to my Primary. My LHBC said it was ok to add it. I stated wth a low OG around 1.040 an was projected to be around 1.014 for FG. I wanted to boost it and so I think it should be arounf 1.060 for OG now.
Am I right or wrong?

Thanks for all the great help here.

Did you boil it in some water and add it, or just toss it in?

They told me to just add it directly. Then using a santized spoon, swirl it around.
It made quite a mess, but has now calmed down and working fine again.

Mike's Brew and Brat said:

They told me to just add it directly. Then using a santized spoon, swirl it around.
It made quite a mess, but has now calmed down and working fine again.

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I'm sure (kind of) that your beer is going to be fine, but if it were me I don't believe I'd ever ask "they" for any advice again. At the very least "they" advised you to introduce an infection into your beer.

It is a Fat Tire clone from Midwest. I sure hope it's ok. It sure smells good and looks great.