First brew - additives questions

So my first brew is HOPEFULLY coming up this weekend and I am pretty nervous. I am brewing a Magic Hat #9 clone and had a few questions on variations.

First, I have read that different sugars could affect the end alcohol content. I wouldn't mind a stronger beer, so here are my questions.

1. the recipe calls for 0.75 cup corn sugar. I have a 1.0 cup pack of priming sugar. Will the priming sugar produce a stronger or weaker (all other things being equal) beer?

2. I have read that rice sugar or syrup has a higher potential alcohol content. If I were to sub the above mentioned sugar, what can I expect from the rice sugar in terms of taste, coloring, etc.?

3. the recipe calls for either 3.3 lbs of apricot puree or 3.0 oz of apricot flavoring. I forgot about this component so I may just have to settle with the flavoring, but I am not sure where to find it. Being the curious person that I am, what would adding apricot preserves (jam) do to the beer?

any tips, thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, or warnings are greatly appreciated.

1. You would not want to prime with extra sugar. The priming sugar will only add a small amount of alcohol, it is mainly there for carbonation, adding too much can lead to bottle bombs at worst and over carbonated beer at best. If you want more alcohol (and a dryer beer) you can add some sugar to the initial fermentation.

2. I don't know what you mean by rice sugar exactly as I have not used it but similar to the answer for 1 the higher the fermentability of the sugar used the less you would want to prime with, for example you would use less sucrose (table sugar) than dextrose (corn sugar).

3. Both puree and extract can be found from online homebrew sites as well as other places. Adding apricot preserves may have good results but could cause problems due to the contents other than apricots (like simple sugars or preservatives) be careful in reading over the ingredients before experimenting with this.

Priming sugar is corn sugar, also called dextrose (which is the word for glucose derived from corn). It's purpose is to add a little bit of fermentable sugar to your beer when you bottle. The yeast will ferment the sugar and make carbon dioxide, so your beer won't be flat. It adds a very small amount of alcohol to your beer. Don't try to make your beer more alcoholic at the bottling stage. You will wind up with bottle bombs and/or beer that's too over carbonated to pour.

If you want a beer that's more alcoholic you need make changes in your recipe so that the wort has more fermentable sugar in it. But I strongly advise that you just follow the recipe as written for your first few beers. You're just at the beginning of your journey. You'll have plenty of beers to experiment on soon enough.

First, 3/4 cup of corn sugar is normal for most beers. You could got a small bit more to get a bit more carb, but you have to be careful not to make bottle bombs or a foamy pour.

Shop online for an apricot puree or apricot flavoring. Or you could buy apricots from teh store and mash or puree them yourself...

Rice syrup, or any rice adjuct can contribute to a higher ABV without adding flavor. It's used to make Bud for this reason. I think that rice solids may need to be mashed to get their sugar, while rice syrup is ready to go.

I'd be curious to see that recipe. Honestly, Captain Damage has it right. I would not start messing around with recipes to start off with. If the recipe has gotten good reviews, just try to follow it to a T and see what happens. I would make sure not to make a Magic Hat #9 clone too strong. I think it would be easy to make it not taste so good that way.