how to increase starting gravity?

is there any way to increase my starting gravity?? My last beer I did I wanted to get about 7-8% alc. but the starting gravity was low, which makes things harder... It started at 1.04 the day I made it... then after fermentation, and adding an extra pound of sugar I was at 1.01...which comes out to about 5-5.5%.... how do I get the starting gravity higher? I really want to hit about 6-7% this time around...

Its an english brown ale. 1 can of liquid malt, 2 bags of dry malt, 2 bags of grains, adding 1 lb of dark candi sugar...then going to add 1 more lb candy sugar after first fermentation.

Prolly to much sugar for a brown ale IMO. 1 can liquid malt. Is it 3.3 lbs? 2 bags of dry malt? Are they 3 lbs. each? 2 bags of grains. What are they? Cheers!!!

You seem to be making an easy process rather difficult. If you want more gravity points, add more fermentable sugars to your boil. I would avoid raw sugars and wouldn't add any sugars during the fermentation process.

Do you have a brewing book?

BendBrewer said:

You seem to be making an easy process rather difficult. If you want more gravity points, add more fermentable sugars to your boil. I would avoid raw sugars and wouldn't add any sugars during the fermentation process.

Do you have a brewing book?

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i do not, but every brewing place I have called says the more sugar you add, the more alcohol content you will get, and they allllll recommend adding like 1lb after initial fermentation

the liquid malt was 3.3lbs... and then there were 2 bags of 1lb dry malt, and 2 like half lb bags of grains

This might help: How Much Extract To Use

It's a section of John Palmer's famous How To Brew that deals with the amount of extract. It should give you and idea what you need to do.

Incidentally, Palmer's book is full of all kinds of great information. You can read much of it for free on his site, but the hardcopy of the book contains even more info. It's a worthwhile purchase.

Brian

and they allllll recommend adding like 1lb after initial fermentation

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Yeah, I would stop listening to those folks and get a good brew book to read. Adding sugars during fermentation is not standard practice.

If you aren't balancing your recipe out, and just adding simple sugars for the simple purpose of copping higher buzz, you're going to make something that tastes like bad cider.

In Belgian and strong beers it is used to boost the alcohol and thin the body of already very malty beersm that would be like cough syrup if we didn't. Indescriminantly throwing sugar in any old recipe is a recipe for disaster.

What are you after making great tasting beer (like most of us are) or just copping a cheap buzz?

BigEd said:

Make the kit the way it's designed and then brew something bigger next time is my suggestion. This question (boosting alcohol content) gets asked all the time and while the simplest thing is to just add more fermentable ingredients this will cause an in-balance in the recipe. For the beer to taste like it should many of the other aspects of the recipe would have to be altered as well. To make a crude analogy, you can put a bigger engine in a car to boost horsepower but now will the transmission, brakes and tires be adequate? Enjoy the Scottish ale for what it is and plan for a bigger brew next time around.

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It's not about just slopping a bunch of stuff together, it's really about how everything works together.

If you want a higher abv beer, then make your next kit higher. It really isn't about the booze, but the flavor that most of us care about. We're not brewing to get whacked, but to make great tasting beer.

For example a mild IS a great tasting beer, despite it's low alcohol content. Because there's not a high alcohol backbone, you can really get some nice subtle flavors it it.

Besides, Beer recipes are a balance...and if you add to one variable, that will affect other parts of it...For example if you decide to raise the gravity of a balanced beer...a beer where the hops balance out the sweetness...and you raise the maltniness of it without alaso balancing the hops, then your beer may end up being way too cloyingly sweet. Or if you just add sugar willy nilly it could become overly dry, or cidery.

SO I would just brew this, and enjoy it, don't worry if you get buzzed or not, and make your next batch as high as you want.

My take on this is that there is a difference between true experimentation and throwing things together "willy nilly." I have noticed on here is that a lot of noobs think what they are doing is experimentation, when in reality they are just throwing a bunch of stuff against the wall and hoping it sticks.

Throwing a bunch of stuff in your fermenter and seeing what you get at the end, and ending up making an "is my beer ruined" thread is not the same thing as experimenting.

To me, in order to experiment truly, you have to have an understanding of the fundamentals. You have to know how the process works somewhat. You have to have an understanding of how different ingredients or processes affect the final product. You may even need to know, or at least understand something about beer styles, and what goes into making one beer a Porter and another a pale ale. And where your concoction will fall on the continuoum.


To me it's like cooking or even Jazz. But going back to the cooking analogy. Coming up with a balanced and tasty recipe takes some understanding of things...just like cooking...dumping a cup of salt will more than likely ruin a recipe...so if you cook, you KNOW not to do that...it's the same with brewing...you get an idea with experience and looking at recipes, brewing and playing with software how things work..what flavors work with each other, etc...

That to me is the essence of creating...I have gotten to a point where I understand what I am doing, I get how ingredients work or don't work with each other, so I am not just throwing a bunch of stuff together to see what I get.

I have an idea of what I want it to taste like, and my challenge then is to get the right combination of ingredients to match what is in my head. That's also pretty much how I come up with new food recipes as well.

You'll get there....a LOT sooner, if you focus on the fundamentals, and get your processes in order...rather than just playing around.

I think, if you haven't read a brewing book, that is an important step. I would start by reading this book.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

And decide what you're really after...the high or a great beer. If it's a great beer, there are plenty of recipes and kits out there, even high gravity ones that are balanced nicely...brew one of those. If you're about the high...maybe buying a bottle of vodka is the answer, it might taste better than just tossing a bunch of stuff in your beer.

"Its an english brown ale. 1 can of liquid malt, 2 bags of dry malt, 2 bags of grains, adding 1 lb of dark candi sugar...then going to add 1 more lb candy sugar after first fermentation."

By my calculations that should give 1.54 SG. Didn`t add the 2 bags of grain because I didn`t know what they were. You would be better off adding more dry malt extract instead of more sugar. Just adding sugar is bad advice, says alot for the home brew shops in your area!!

Take Revvy`s advice buy "How to Brew" by John Palmer. You can also go to www.howtobrew.com and read it there for free but the book is handy.

Use DME and/or steeped crushed grains to get your SG up. PM me and I can help with a recipe.

VB

I feel a little nit-picky saying it, but I think there's definitely a time and place for throwing something at the wall to see what sticks as a valid form of experimentation. I've learned a lot by doing that every so often.

I'll be the first to admit, of course, that in order to learn effectively from it, you need to devote time to researching fundamentals so that you can answer questions such as "how do I describe the flavors I've achieved with this experiment," and "do I like these flavors," and "how do I either replicate this recipe reliably, or tweak it in a more pleasing direction," etc. However, the need to learn the fundamentals, at least for me, doesn't eliminate the need to try something random with whatever I have on hand occasionally; it just focuses it.

I'd just throw a couple more pounds of Dry Malt in the boil & forget about the sugar all together. That should get you around 6.5% ABV. Cheers!!!

Edit: You might want to up the bitter hops just a bit to help counter the additional malt & alcohol.

corwin3083 said:

I feel a little nit-picky saying it, but I think there's definitely a time and place for throwing something at the wall to see what sticks as a valid form of experimentation. I've learned a lot by doing that every so often.

I'll be the first to admit, of course, that in order to learn effectively from it, you need to devote time to researching fundamentals so that you can answer questions such as "how do I describe the flavors I've achieved with this experiment," and "do I like these flavors," and "how do I either replicate this recipe reliably, or tweak it in a more pleasing direction," etc. However, the need to learn the fundamentals, at least for me, doesn't eliminate the need to try something random with whatever I have on hand occasionally; it just focuses it.

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But you do it within a structure of understanding. Like a cook...would you throw a cup of salt into your spaghetti sauce? Or would you throw a "reasonable" amount? That's what I'm getting at. If you have a basic understanding of the principles and processes then when you experiment, you are doing so in a way that's not "willy nilly" and you have a greater chance of success. You may not LIKE the finished process, but you didn't end up ruining it, by what you did.

I probably have entered more beers in in categories 21-23 than any other I enter into. In fact most of my experiments have done the best in contests.

I mean I've used, 50+ year old honey, Jaggery, Date Syrup, Date Palm mollasses, every grade of brown sugar, mascerated dates, mexican hot chocolate disks (both in the boil and as mash liquid), ginger orange marmalde, lime marmalade, candied ginger, tortilla chips, my own chili powder, whole dried and smoked chilli, I've roasted my own grain and even soaked it in simple syrup and then roasted it, I've been experimenting with priming with things like date syrup. And I've used all the "normal" "strange" ingredients like pumpkin, spices, citrus peels, stuff like that.

I've been disappointed in the outcome of some of them...but never had a beer that was totally ruined and undrinkable because of what I did.

For what it is worth it takes the same everything to make bad beer as it does great beer. The difference is experience, process and general understanding of what you are doing with what ingredient.

Zamial said:

For what it is worth it takes the same everything to make bad beer as it does great beer. The difference is experience, process and general understanding of what you are doing with what ingredient.

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Well said.

hamiltont said:

I'd just throw a couple more pounds of Dry Malt in the boil & forget about the sugar all together. That should get you around 6.5% ABV. Cheers!!!

Edit: You might want to up the bitter hops just a bit to help counter the additional malt & alcohol.

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I did do this

so back to the main point of the thread... is what I did ok to get more alc. %.. just added 1lb of candy sugar... thats all people... i dunno where all these generalizations about doing random stuff came from AT ALL! everything else was by the book

Yes sugar will get you more ABV.

But if you use too much sugar, it won't be quite right. It's easy to figure out how much malt extract to use to get your target ABV, so you should not need to add simple sugar. It just sounds like you aren't fully armed and informed.

If you want more alcohol, just use more extract. Forget candy sugar and all that crap unless you're making a Belgian where it belongs.

ksbrain said:

Yes sugar will get you more ABV.

But if you use too much sugar, it won't be quite right. It's easy to figure out how much malt extract to use to get your target ABV, so you should not need to add simple sugar. It just sounds like you aren't fully armed and informed.

If you want more alcohol, just use more extract. Forget candy sugar and all that crap unless you're making a Belgian where it belongs.

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i was told that dark candy sugar was a good way to darken it as well as add ABV...figured kill 2 birds with 1 stone, or should I generally use grains to darken?

Problem as a noob and using grains is we have no F-ing clue how they effect the taste...and seeing as there are a million different grains.....i dont even know where to start, yes I should probably use a book, but I want to achieve the ABV issue first, even if the beer tastes like crap, because then I can at least go from there to fix the flavor... a 3% beer is useless to me.. I only have 2-3 beers a night. im a small guy, get home from work at about 1130PM, lookin to catch a quick buzz while enjoying a drink.. bottom line

perhaps u should look into different kits. ive made several 5-8 abv beers and never had 2 doctor the kit. the rauchbier im brewing on sat should end up around 5-6% and that is with just opening the box and following the instructions. no xtra headache of what do i need 2 do 2 boost the alcohol.

snb778 said:

i was told that dark candy sugar was a good way to darken it as well as add ABV...figured kill 2 birds with 1 stone, or should I generally use grains to darken?

Problem as a noob and using grains is we have no F-ing clue how they effect the taste...and seeing as there are a million different grains.....i dont even know where to start, yes I should probably use a book, but I want to achieve the ABV issue first, even if the beer tastes like crap, because then I can at least go from there to fix the flavor... a 3% beer is useless to me.. I only have 2-3 beers a night. im a small guy, get home from work at about 1130PM, lookin to catch a quick buzz while enjoying a drink.. bottom line

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If you want to brew a higher gravity beer you could:

a) Find a recipe, like a barley wine, imperial stout, imperial IPA, etc. that produces a high starting gravity. There are a number of recipes in this forum you can use.
b) If you want to formulate your own, understand that the gravity is a measure of density and the way to up the density is to add more stuff to the wort (the "stuff" in this case is fermentable sugars - unfermentable sugars won't contribute to a higher alcohol content). Charlie Papazian has a chart in his "Complete Joy of Home Brewing" (a good choice if you do pick up a book) telling you how much gravity a pound of different types of ingredients will yield in one gallon of water. I don't have the time of desire to reproduce that chart right now, but his rule of thumb is a pound of Extract will raise the gravity .004-.006. in 5 gallons of water. Use that as a starting point, but keep in mind with a higher gravity beer you will need a yeast and pitching process that can handle it.

Or, with all due respect, if you really are ok with getting a quick buzz drinking crappy beer why not just buy on of those 24 oz. cans of Steel Reserve? (I really don't mean that as an insult, I just don't understand why you would go through the trouble of brewing it yourself if that is your top priority.) If you want to brew good beer you should definitely take the time to read up on all that goes into it; understanding fermentable vs unfermentable sugars, how to achieve desired gravities, hops utilization, what grains produce what flavors (grains can be overwhelming, but Papazian does a good job of explaining what the different kinds do and how to use them), the properties and quirks of yeast, etc. You can also always fall back on tried and true recipes.

snb778 said:

I did do this

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I guess what I meant was to add 2 more lbs. of DME making a total of 4 lbs. I didn't realize until now that you already brewed it. Sugar, in any form, will add to the ABV. What it also does is thin the beer & dry it out. Because sugar is almost 100% fermentable it will lower your Final Gravity (FG) leaving it lacking in taste unless you have the malts to back it. In this case the malt is somewhat lacking. I prolly wouldn't add 1 more lb candy sugar after first fermentation though. I'm sure you'll have a drinkable beer as is. Here's a link to a free tool I've used in the past. It can help you formulate recipes if/when you want to venture away from kits, or if you want to modify a kit you already have. The Beer Replicator Cheers!!!

snb778 said:

... a 3% beer is useless to me.. I only have 2-3 beers a night. im a small guy, get home from work at about 1130PM, lookin to catch a quick buzz while enjoying a drink.. bottom line

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Ok, then drink 4-6 per nite to get your buzz(2x3%= a 6% brew). The batch will be gone sooner and then you can brew up a new 7% kit.

To me, there's nothing worse than trying to choke down bad tasting beer. Hell, that's why I'm on this site... to make great beer at a BMC price.

I'd rather drink a great tasting 3% brew than the opposite.

Linkin said:

If you want to brew a higher gravity beer you could:

a) Find a recipe, like a barley wine, imperial stout, imperial IPA, etc. that produces a high starting gravity. There are a number of recipes in this forum you can use.
b) If you want to formulate your own, understand that the gravity is a measure of density and the way to up the density is to add more stuff to the wort (the "stuff" in this case is fermentable sugars - unfermentable sugars won't contribute to a higher alcohol content). Charlie Papazian has a chart in his "Complete Joy of Home Brewing" (a good choice if you do pick up a book) telling you how much gravity a pound of different types of ingredients will yield in one gallon of water. I don't have the time of desire to reproduce that chart right now, but his rule of thumb is a pound of Extract will raise the gravity .004-.006. in 5 gallons of water. Use that as a starting point, but keep in mind with a higher gravity beer you will need a yeast and pitching process that can handle it.

Or, with all due respect, if you really are ok with getting a quick buzz drinking crappy beer why not just buy on of those 24 oz. cans of Steel Reserve? (I really don't mean that as an insult, I just don't understand why you would go through the trouble of brewing it yourself if that is your top priority.) If you want to brew good beer you should definitely take the time to read up on all that goes into it; understanding fermentable vs unfermentable sugars, how to achieve desired gravities, hops utilization, what grains produce what flavors (grains can be overwhelming, but Papazian does a good job of explaining what the different kinds do and how to use them), the properties and quirks of yeast, etc. You can also always fall back on tried and true recipes.

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where is everyone gettin the impression I like crappy beer... who the F makes their own if they like crappy beer... Nowhere, in any way shape or form did I even hint this, nor did I say adding ABV was my TOP priority, its jus the current priority.. I found a recipe I really like, just trying to make it stronger... I'm simply trying to increase the ABV.. I dunno why this is so confusing to some of you.....to the rest.. thanks for the input

snb778 said:

I want to achieve the ABV issue first, even if the beer tastes like crap, because then I can at least go from there to fix the flavor... a 3% beer is useless to me.. I only have 2-3 beers a night. im a small guy, get home from work at about 1130PM, lookin to catch a quick buzz while enjoying a drink.. bottom line

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That bit gave me the impression that quality was secondary to alcohol. No disrespect intended. Like others have suggested add a few pounds of DME and a but more hops to compensate. Best of luck tweaking that recipe.

If you want to increase alcohol you could add about 1 lb of light/golden dry malt extract to most recipes and it won't affect it too much other than increasing gravity. Adding more than that is drastically going to affect gravity/bitterness balance or if you're adding table sugar it may dry it out too much.

But yes, to get more alcohol, add more sugar.

The reason people think you you like cr@p beer is because you said you'd like to figure the alcohol thing out frist and then worry about flavor later. Raising the gravity is the easiest thing to do. Why not pick up a kit with a higher gravity?

If you're not focused on trying to produce good tasting beer, it probably won't taste good because you're going to skip steps.

snb778 said:

i It started at 1.04 the day I made it... then after fermentation, and adding an extra pound of sugar I was at 1.01...which comes out to about 5-5.5%.... how do I get the starting gravity higher? I really want to hit about 6-7% this time around...

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Just a thought that your problem may have been nothing more than a bad hydro sample. When you take your starting grav from extract batches it is very easy to get a diluted sample that has more top off water than wort and has lower gravity than the recipe truly has. Also was your sample temp at 60 degrees. Its hard to have a low gravity when you use extract as the sugars have been converted for you already. If the beer isnt done yet you ought to leave it be for another few weeks and then bottle and see how it tastes after you have it properly carbed. You may have your desired abv but a bad grav sample or hydro reading has led you astray.

I am sure most here will agree that you should just let it finish and see how it ends up before you try to fix it.

And TAKE NOTES. Write down the original recipe/kit, what the results of that were like, what you did for the second batch/experiment, and what the results of that were like . . . ad infinitum.
Yes, learn what additions of each individual ingredient is most likely to do, but that won't really help unless you also remember what you did.

We've been having a similar prob, especially with IPA's; OG readings are off - last batch tried adding 10% more grains across the board, but still no noticeable effect...