Toying with a Northern Brewer recipe

I have done two all grain batches so far: a higher gravity holiday ale which was from a recipe I found on here and played with a bit. The second was an all grain kit from Northern Brewer called AK-47. It's a pale ale that is very low in alcohol, but that's kind of what I wanted. I have dual tap towers and I wanted a session beer. In any case, the AK-47 grain bill is only about 5.6 lbs of grain and an ounce of kent golding hops. It ends up only being around 3%abv.
My question is this, do you guys think I could just double grain bill and hops and end up with a similar beer that's a bit higher in gravity? It smelled SO good when it was brewing, and I'd like to toy with that recipe to give it a bit more umfph.

I recommend signing up for an account (free) on hopville. They provide a really easy tool to help create and modify recipes. You can take your pale ale recipe and put it on there, and then play with the grain bill and hops to see how it will change the final product - it lists predicted starting and finishing gravities, IBUs, % abv, etc.

Generally speaking, yes, you can raise the alcohol content of a recipe by increasing the amount of grain used, up to a point. More grain will result in a sweeter, maltier flavor, so you will have to add more hops to stay closer to the balance of sweet/malty and bitter/hoppy that existed before you modified the recipe. I don't think that simply doubling the grain bill and doubling the hop additions will maintain that balance, but if you play around with hopville for a bit, you should be able to figure out what you need to do to get the end result you're looking for. The flavor will be stronger but should stay fairly close to the character of the original.

If you really want to just make the beer stronger without changing the taste at all (other than the stronger alcohol taste) you can add some sugar to up the gravity. Corn sugar (usually sold for priming bottles) or table sugar both work. I've done it once before to bump up the OG of an Imperial IPA whose mash efficiency wasn't quite "Imperial" enough to hit the high abv that I was aiming for.

Wow thanks for the info! I just signed up for hopville and played on the calculator. How will I know the effects of doubling the grain and hop bill on the flavor?
When would you add that sugar, at flame out?

Moody_Copperpot said:

Wow thanks for the info! I just signed up for hopville and played on the calculator. How will I know the effects of doubling the grain and hop bill on the flavor?

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Well, one thing to look at is the graphical scale on the right, which ranges from "malty sweet" to "hoppy bitter". If you've moved that arrow a lot, you've altered the balance and the flavor will be distinctly different. They also list a number labeled BU:GU which is a measure of bitterness units per gravity unit.

One thing you could try: Enter your original recipe into hopville, and then select a style for it, like American Pale Ale. The calculator will tell you if the recipe fits that style. Browse the styles until you find one that's a good match. Then, start upping your grain and hops and see how far you get before it calls foul.

When would you add that sugar, at flame out?

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Probably in the last few minutes of the boil would be fine. Just needs to fully dissolve.

You can also boil up a little pan of sugar water and add it to the fermenter after you've chilled the wort and taken a gravity reading if you're trying to boost it to a certain OG. Many brewers do this with malt extract, but that does add more malty flavor to your beer, so it probably wouldn't be appropriate for your case.

Thank you for your feedback, it's very helpful. I'm brand new to all grain brewing, and there is a lot to learn!

I just brewed that recipe and I'll have to say it is my least favorite kit ever.
I'm not sure why but I think it was the windsor yeast the recipe called for. Very estery.

Clann said:

I just brewed that recipe and I'll have to say it is my least favorite kit ever.
I'm not sure why but I think it was the windsor yeast the recipe called for. Very estery.

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What was your fermentation temperature? Ale yeasts like Windsor will produce undesirable flavors if the temperature is too high during fermentation.

ReeseAllen said:

What was your fermentation temperature? Ale yeasts like Windsor will produce undesirable flavors if the temperature is too high during fermentation.

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I was about to say the same thing. Plus on that yeast you have to make sure your wort is no higher than 70F when adding it. I'm fermenting it at around 66F right now, as that is the temp. in my basement. I'll let you know my results here in a week or so.

Fermenting temps are mid to upper 60s. this is the first time I've used the windsor yeast.
I think I pitched right at 70.

Update: I kegged my AK-47 on Friday and it's not estery at all. Really heavy grain/malt flavor, but seems like it will be a good session beer. I will toy with the recipe to make it a bit more bold and hoppy for sure.