Increase alcohol content????

I'm very new to beer brewing and have tried a few Mr. Beer type kits. I want to move to an all grains stout. I also want a ABV of at least 9%. My question is, if I have a recipe that I want to use, how do I increase the alcohol content of the brew it it normally would be 5%. I'm very familiar with fruit wines.....just add more sugar! But with beer, how do I do this? Adding sugar doesn't sound right and I wasn't sure about the grains since a specific recipe will give a specific taste. If I do increase grains, which ones do I increase and by how much per gallon? As a starting point, lets assume the following recipe gives an ABV of 5%. What do I add or increase to get the ABV up to around 9%?

Fermentables
% Weight Weight (lbs) Grain
68.3 % 7.00 British Two-row Pale
9.8 % 1.00 British Crystal 50-60L
9.8 % 1.00 Lactose
7.3 % 0.75 Roasted Barley
4.9 % 0.50 British Pale Chocolate
hops

Thanks in advance to anybody who helps!

Jason

Add more of each grain keepng the %'s the same. It will be bigger beer. You can add sugar if you just want to add alcohol. Too much will get you off flavors, though. If you want a 9% stout, go to recipes and find an imperial stout that looks good!

Totally agree. I would also recommend that if you're trying to bump up the alcohol a little bit, try using DME instead of refined sugar. Sometimes the pure sugar will actually change the way yeast operate and they never get around to some of the more complex carbs because they get their fill of sugars that were added. If you're looking to go all-grain right away, you can just add more grains to get you up to the ABV you're looking for.

Oh yeah, go and download the trial version of BeerSmith too. This will let you plug that recipe in there to see what the difference would be by adding X pounds of one of your grains. This makes it so easy when trying to get your formula up to your desired OG.

thanks for the suggestions. I was curious as to what to do if I found a recipe I like and didn't want to change the taste but increase the alcohol just a little. I guess the simple answer is that you cannot. Oh well, I guess that is where all the fun in this is right???? Thanks for the suggestions!!! I greatly appreciate it!

Jason

A pound of lactose??!!!!

Well, I would suggest adding vodka or Everclear to the finished product if your ABV turns out too low, but I get ***** slapped every time I do that, so I won't.

My oatmeal stout has a lb of lactose in it (not during the boil, I add it after primary) and turns out really good, but I have more grains than in the OP's recipe.

Try this RIS
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/08-08-08-a-41782/

Sir Humpsalot said:

A pound of lactose??!!!!

Click to expand...

Lactose is not fermentable.