beer strength!

Hi i've had a st peters brewery golden ale kit (4.7abv est)in my fermenter for 6 days and after some input from here i'm going to leave it in the fermenter for 2-3 weeks to aid taste and clarity..
My OG was 1.044 and i'm not sure where i should be on my hydrometer at FG..
I'm going to bottle from the fermenter rather than keg and was wondering how much sugar should go into each 500ml bottle and if my FG gives me a low abv will adding more sugar to each bottle put my abv up?
Cheers...

#1. No, you cannot add more sugar to each bottle to try to boost alcohol or you will end up with exploding bottles! (bottle bombs!)

The formula to figure out ABV is (OG - FG) x 131.25

So if you start at 1.044 and finished at 1.008 you would be right about 4.7% ABV

It is much easier and safer to batch prime your beer with priming sugar (mix the sugar into your 5 gallon batch). This is the main reason for using a separate bottling bucket. An average priming rate is 4.5 oz of white table sugar per 5.0 gallon batch. This calculator is handy: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

So i should tap the beer into another bucket add the sugar then leave that for how long before bottling?thanks.

Yellowpinky said:

So i should tap the beer into another bucket add the sugar then leave that for how long before bottling?thanks.

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The sugar should be dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water and then stirred well before adding to the empty bottling bucket and THEN siphoning the beer on top of the sugar mixture. Usually siphoning creates enough swirling to mix the sugar in well. You should bottle the same day...you don't want the yeast to start eating the priming sugar before you bottle or you'll start losing CO2.

Thanks,should i add a tap to the bucket then fill bottles that way or do i have to syphon?

Leave the recipe as it is and not try to boost the ABV. It was designed to taste good and just trying to boost the ABV with throw off the balance. If you want a higher ABV beer then brew one that was designed to be higher.

Here is a great thread on the bottling process. Lots of good tips and pics to show the process.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

Yellowpinky said:

Thanks,should i add a tap to the bucket then fill bottles that way or do i have to syphon?

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For your bottling bucket, do yourself a favor and put a tap in it. Usually you just need to drill about a 1" hole. Then get a bottling wand to fit the tap. Much easier that way.

Yellowpinky said:

Thanks,should i add a tap to the bucket then fill bottles that way or do i have to syphon?

Click to expand...

Either way. If you don't have a spigot on your bucket, you can use a racking cane,tubing and a bottling wand.

Thanks its no probs to add a tap,cheers