Adding more yeast = higher ABV?

I'm brewing a Russian Imperial Stout pretty soon and I really want to get the most out of it. I was curious if adding another vial of White Labs to my starter will drive my FG up. I do realize this will dry out my beer quite a bit but I'm okay with that.

Thanks for the advice.

nope it will give you a better chance of hitting your fg where you want it but more yeast doesnt equal more alcohol. more sugar = more alcohol

Adding more yeast won't achieve a higher ABV. Adding more sugar will. The yeast convert sugars to alcohol. Even if you added another packet of yeast, if there are no more sugars present for the yeast to "eat" then they won't produce any more alcohol.

Adding sugar will increase the ABV, and also dry the beer out.

What's your OG, and what FG are you shooting for? I usually have an OG of 1.100 for my imperials, but the FG won't go below 1.020 or so. As the alcohol content increases, the environment becomes more toxic to the yeast and they poop out.

More yeast does not mean more alcohol, more sugars does. Although that isnt completely true. If you had a brew where you were using a yeast with a really low alcohol tolerance, and it died out before all the sugar was consumed, then adding some yeast with a high tolerance to alcohol, might get you some more alcohol out of the batch. In this case the extra yeast finished the job, but if you added more yeast after that you wouldnt get any more alcohol.

I'd encourage you to look into starters and calculating the "recommended" pitching rate for the beer you're brewing. Mr. Malty has a calculator to help. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Take it for what it's worth. It's a tool to help you make better beer. People can (and will) debate the pitching rate issue until they die. I look at it as a way to (possibly) improve my beer.

Long and short of it, the previous posters are correct in the more sugar = higher ABV, BUT... The correct amount of yeast will help you achieve your desired beer.

Well, if you are looking for a drier / more attenuated beer... certain yeast strains are better at surviving in a high alcohol environment than others and can continue to ferment even at these higher alcohol levels. Of course you would not want to use these in a beer that is supposed to have a relatively high FG (example 1.020 and up) because the beer will not taste as the style dictates.

Using more yeast then you need is called over pitching. It doesn't produce more alcohol or really anything you could call beneficial.

Post a recipe with what you expect out of it. If it's something on the drier side then that can certainly be addressed.

Adding an extra vial of yeast to the starter certainly won't increase the FG.
If (without the extra vial) you had inadequate yeast, and the extra vial made up the deficit, then it could well reduce the FG, and improve the beer.
The best results are produced by pitching the correct amount of healthy yeast. In the case of liquid yeast, this can be done by making a starter. If a simple, one step starter does not produce enough, you could add an extra vial, or you could do a two or three step starter. There are no advantages to be obtained by overpitching, except that you will increase White Labs profits at your expense.

-a.

Starting with a good amount of yeast WILL help you have a good healthy ferment that will give you the best chance of reaching proper attenuation for that yeast strain, but that doesn't equate to more yeast equals more alcohol. As said, sugar equals alcohol (up to the attenuation of the yeast).

I love how the first three replies all say the same thing. Shows how much people read before showering the OP with their 2 cents

PolishStout said:

I love how the first three replies all say the same thing. Shows how much people read before showering the OP with their 2 cents

Click to expand...

I thought the third and sixth poster added a significant qualifier, the attenuation level of the initial and late addition yeasts, and I would add another case...

1. (Repeat) If you started with low attenuating yeast, then added high attenuating yeast (something I would like to experiment with for flavor, like Windsor, which finishes high but has considerable flavor contributions, then Nottingham which finishes low but is "neutral")

2. stuck fermentation (usually the result of under pitching or poor conditions), adding more yeast can indeed improve attenuation at this point (and therefore ABV)

So, technically speaking, there are cases where more yeast can increase the ABV, but if the question is "does more of the same yeast improve ABV under normal circumstances" then "no" is the correct answer.

PolishStout said:

I love how the first three replies all say the same thing. Shows how much people read before showering the OP with their 2 cents

Click to expand...

I love how you take the time to criticize other people's posts instead of offering something useful to say. If you look at the timestamps of the first 2 posts they are 2 minutes apart, which means that we essentially were typing at the same time, and neither one of us had a chance to see the other's post.

PolishStout said:

I love how the first three replies all say the same thing. Shows how much people read before showering the OP with their 2 cents

Click to expand...

There are lots of people reading the posts, and are sometimes in the process of replying at the same time. Sometimes a person may start a reply,and have to stop to do something and by the time they submit it several other people may have already made a simular reply.

Ill add one thing
If the yeast dont crap out then
over and underpitching can alter the caracter the yeast leave on the beer, but will not effect alcohol contents

Oh and dont open a gusher in bed

febbrewro said:

I love how you take the time to criticize other people's posts instead of offering something useful to say. If you look at the timestamps of the first 2 posts they are 2 minutes apart, which means that we essentially were typing at the same time, and neither one of us had a chance to see the other's post.

Click to expand...

Thats what I was pointing out and it looks like we done the same thing.

Wyrmwood said:

2. stuck fermentation (usually the result of under pitching or poor conditions), adding more yeast can indeed improve attenuation at this point (and therefore ABV)

Click to expand...

+1

Yup, that's what I was driving at... good addition.

Appropriate amount of yeast is key. That said, I'd rather overpitch than underpitch

sgillespie said:

Appropriate amount of yeast is key. That said, I'd rather overpitch than underpitch

Click to expand...

yup