adding sugar to increase alcohol

OK, the ale has been in the 2nd stage fermenter for 10 days & I'm about to bottle it. It has a gravity of 1.010, where it has been since before I transferred it. I want to accomplish two things. First, it still seems to have a fair amount of stuff floating around in it when I draw some off in the tube to test the gravity. Is there anything I can add at this point that will help settle it so it will be nice & clear in the bottle? Also, I'd like it to have a fairly high alcohol content. How much priming sugar (I'm using corn) to 5 gals. would bring it up to, say, 6%? Or would that put me in danger of exploding bottles?

Thanks in advance for advice.

What was the OG?

There's quite a few things you can add to the secondary a day or so before bottling to help clear it. Beelclear and Beer brite are two I know of.

yeah any finings will clear it up. as far as bumping the alcohol up in the bottle--i'm not sure this a good idea, exploding bottles is one bad part, 2) corn sugar for alcohol gives an off-taste, 3) there will more than likely just be an excess of carbonation in the bottle. if you want to bump the alcohol up you can try using some invert sugar in the secondary, but you'll have to wait for it to ferment out. this is what a true secondary fermentation is, adding more sugars to convert to alcohol in the secondary.

Crash your beer (drop the temp to 33-34°F for a couple of weeks or more). This will clear it up without adding anything to it.

Wild

add the sugar then wait about 5 days (at least) then bottle with priming sugar as normal, otherwise you will have bottle bombs (glass) or your own mini volcanoes (PET-plastic)!

Thanks for all the quick replies. David 42 asked about the OG, which I think means "original gravity" (I'm not that experienced as a brewer). Well, honestly, it has hovered around 1.010 since right after the yeast stopped percolating. It really hasn't changed much.

As I explained in a post in the "beginner" section, this batch behaved very differently than others I've done. It took about 36 hours for the action to begin & was very short, overnight in fact & it was all over. Usually it starts vigorously within 12-24 hours & tapers off gradually over a couple of days. So I was a little concerned that there might be a problem with it & considered dumping it & staring over. I was assured that it's OK & proceeded with the transfer to 2nd fermenter & now near to bottling it.

I think I'll try Denny's suggestion of adding some priming sugar now to kick up the alcohol content a notch & then waiting 5 days before bottling. then add a bit more at bottling time. If it still has a lot of stuff floating in it at that time I guess I'll try Wild's suggestion of "crashing" it for a few days to settle it. If this makes good sense to everyone here I'll proceed accordingly.

Thanks again for the good advice.

You could also try malt extract in you secondary and then let it sit for another week or 2. As for clearing it I think if you let it sit in the secondary for another couple weeks it will settle out. Also, why do you want to increase the alch content? I think it would be safer to make a higher alch. beer in you next batch instead of augmenting you current batch.
I have used corn sugar (dextrose) before to increase the alch content in a weissen beer, but i added it in the boil. It turned out great, but there was a hint of a cidery taste.

Using table sugar is certainly the worst idea. Corn sugar is a better bet but either of these sugars will result in a loss of body and flavor.. and may result in off flavors. frankly I'd rather have a good 5% beer then an 1% at the cost of an alcohol taste or cidery taste. If you really really must add something to ferment then boil some extract & a bit of water and add that to the beer but be forwarned, you will effectively reduce the bitterness by adding unhopped wort. You could add a hop tea to balance it out but then you're just brewing a mini batch.. for the amount of work invovled you could just brew another batch. By adding unhopped or hopped wort you also risk the possibility that you'll unbalance the beer - make it too bitter or too sweet. The last possibility is to add some inverted sugar - that's what the belgians use to hit those high abv numbers without any off flavors but a lot of it will reduce the beer's body. There are some instructions here on the site (do a search) as well as on the internet for how to turn regular sugar into invert sugar.

To be honest, I'd say leave well enough alone. If you're looking to get snookered from your brew then just drink more of it. Make your next batch a bit stronger - I usually shoot for the mid 5% to low 6% range but for some styles a lower abv is appropriate.

As for the OG, that refers to the original gravity - meaning what was the gravity (temp corrected) of the wort BEFORE you pitched the yeast? Compare that with what it is now and you'll end up with the abv estimate.

If you do add some fermentables in the secondary then I would strongly caution you to wait until the fermentation has ceased before you go about bottling. If you add the normal amount of corn sugar for 5 gals (3/4 cup) and fermentation is not complete then you'll end up with bottle bombs or fizz bombs. If you try to compensate by going short on the sugar then you may have flat beer or may still end up with fizz bombs - there's really no way to tell. Best to play it safe - your beer will be better for it.

edit: Any finings offered by your local brewstore will help the beer clear. If there's chunks of stuff floating in it though then you probably just need to wait and it'll settle out on its own. Let it sit atleast two weeks in the secondary - remember, if you've done everything right then it'll only get better with age.

What style of ale is it?

I'm thinking that if you are really intent on bumping up the ABV on this batch, then it's for one of two reasons- to get drunk faster, or else to impress people with the strength of the beer. Anybody who really know beer though isn't going to be impressed by these things. What they care about is the taste, and the characteristics that you have brewed into your beer. But assuming you aren't trying to impress any beer snobs, assuming you just want to brew a stronger beer for your own personal reasons, then I propose this solution....

I know this is completely against the beer rules, but if I was really intent on bumping up the ABV on a brew, it seems to me the easiest thing to do would be to add some spirits. If it's a scottish ale, take some from the fermenter, mix in a little bit of scotch, and see how it tastes. If it's a Stout, maybe some whiskey would go well. There's always neutral spritis (grain alcohol such as everclear or vodka, which is just grain alcohol dilluted with water). Mix some stuff up, taste it, find something you like, do the calculation to figure out how much you need to add 1% ABV, add it along with the priming sugar at bottling, and there you have it!

That seems to me to be the most sure-fire way of doing it, given the risk of bottle bombs and contamination and all the extra effort that would have to go into another fermentation process. Just "fix this one up" as best you can, learn your lesson, and make the next one better.

Toot said:

I'm thinking that if you are really intent on bumping up the ABV on this batch, then it's for one of two reasons- to get drunk faster, or else to impress people with the strength of the beer. Anybody who really know beer though isn't going to be impressed by these things. What they care about is the taste, and the characteristics that you have brewed into your beer. But assuming you aren't trying to impress any beer snobs, assuming you just want to brew a stronger beer for your own personal reasons, then I propose this solution....

I know this is completely against the beer rules, but if I was really intent on bumping up the ABV on a brew, it seems to me the easiest thing to do would be to add some spirits. If it's a scottish ale, take some from the fermenter, mix in a little bit of scotch, and see how it tastes.

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um... wow...

Toot, are you even kind of serious? Get drunk faster and impress people with the strength?!? Come on man! Thats ridiculus!

Anybody who really knows beer knows that BELGIAN beer is exactly what you just spent a whole paragraph dissing.... and its one of the finest forms of brewing in my opinion!!!

Rock and Roll Brewer: A belgian beer book might help you to accomplish what your looking for, even if you arn't brewing belgian beer.

This is the second time today someone has revived a year-old thread, for no real reason that I can discern.

the_bird said:

This is the second time today someone has revived a year-old thread, for no real reason that I can discern.

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yeah, I think the beer may already be in the bottle by now.

ha!

i didnt even notice! It was on the "new post" list for me before i posted my response...

Oops. I hate it when people revive old threads!!! :cross:

between a couple of microbrews, a new forum to play with, and a few too many open tabs in firefox, I got my new threads and "searched" threads mixed up. I'm trying to search to avoid a bunch of repeat posts, naturally. My bad, guys.

Rodan said:

um... wow...

Toot, are you even kind of serious? Get drunk faster and impress people with the strength?!? Come on man! Thats ridiculus!

Anybody who really knows beer knows that BELGIAN beer is exactly what you just spent a whole paragraph dissing.... and its one of the finest forms of brewing in my opinion!!!

Rock and Roll Brewer: A belgian beer book might help you to accomplish what your looking for, even if you arn't brewing belgian beer.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm new to brewing and have been reading a LOT lately (1-2 hours a day, for the past 3-6 weeks). I was still not aware that Belgian Beers can use additional priming sugar, just prior to bottling, to increase the alcohol content. I didn't realize it could be done that way. Intuitively, and from everything I've read, it seems like it would be a recipe for disaster. I stand corrected!!! I guess that just means I have more reading to do, I suppose because I still don't understand how this could be done safely. So if anybody has some links that explains the process of safely upping the alcohol content during bottle-conditioning, I would be VERY interested because, frankly, I don't understand it.

And I wasn't dissing Belgian beers at all. But any old beer, with boosted alcohol, does not make a Belgian. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion and, no doubt, yours in more knowledgeable than mine, but IMHO, there is more to a Belgian beer than simply a high alcohol content.

It's my bad though. I was trying to say that it doesn't seem like a good idea to take a good batch of weak beer and gamble with it to make it stronger though an additional fermentation process. I know it's been done before, but it is far beyond not only my capabilities, but also my imagination at this time. And if the person asking the question were comfortable enough to do the procedure, I'd imagine he'd have more of an idea of how to go about, so I just assumed it wasn't a good idea. But, since apparently you can bump up the alcohol level in the bottle, I guess that answers that question. I certainly have more reading to do on that subject.

Cheers!


Anyway, folks, I aplogize for this revival from the dead. :fro: