Substitute for booster?

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My West Coast Pale Ale batches are coming out at about 2% ABV...I would like to increase that by at least 2 more.

I make 2 gallon batches...how much DME or sugar should I add?

Thanks!
 
My West Coast Pale Ale batches are coming out at about 2% ABV...I would like to increase that by at least 2 more.

I make 2 gallon batches...how much DME or sugar should I add?

Thanks!

2% ABV? That doesn't sound right.

How are you arriving at that figure? What's your recipe?
 
2% ABV? That doesn't sound right.How are you arriving at that figure?

Hydrometer.

What's your recipe?

It was the Mr. Beer West Coast Pale Ale, that comes with the kit. It had the "booster" pack, which I used. Could some of my yeast been dead?

Personally, I wouldnt care about ABV, but some of my friends/family commented on it. (read "younger" friends/family) ;)
 
That still doesn't sound right.

How big a batch did you do? What did you include in your recipe?

How long did you let it ferment?
What were your starting and ending gravities?


Sorry for the 3rd degree, but if you did a Mr. Beer kit and only got 2% ABV, something went horribly wrong. It's best to figure it out now and fix it before you do another batch.
 
Im not sure what OG and FG is, but I just looked at the ABV scale on the hydrometer. The beer tasted fine to me...in fact, great...and while all of my friends agreed, those who drank 3 or 4 said they felt very little "buzz".

The beer is all gone now, it was 2 gallons, and I let it ferment for two weeks. It was carbonated perfectly, and was as clear as it was golden.

I got my hydrometer at a yard sale after I had started brewing, so I only had the one reading.

My second batch is already in bottles.

Im a newbie, so go easy on me. :)
 
Im not sure what OG and FG is, but I just looked at the ABV scale on the hydrometer. The beer tasted fine to me...in fact, great...and while all of my friends agreed, those who drank 3 or 4 said they felt very little "buzz".

The beer is all gone now, it was 2 gallons, and I let it ferment for two weeks. It was carbonated perfectly, and was as clear as it was golden.

I got my hydrometer at a yard sale after I had started brewing, so I only had the one reading.

My second batch is already in bottles.

Im a newbie, so go easy on me. :)

Your hydrometer has another scale on it, called the "specific gravity" scale. The other scale you were looking at is the "potential alcohol" scale. I think you made a mistake in reading your hydrometer.

The West Coast Pale Ale with Booster recipe should give you significantly higher ABV than 2%. If the fermentation ended at 2% on the potential alcohol scale, that doesn't mean it's 2% alcohol- it means that it ended at about 1.008. Turn your hydrometer to see what I mean.

Without knowing where you started, you can't calculate ABV from that. But if you remember how many pounds of extract you used, and how much booster, we could calculate the probably OG (original gravity) and give you the approximate ABV. It's probably around 5% ABV or so.
 
That figure would be including the Booster. When I used my Mr Beer I would always add 1 lb DME along with their HME (hopped malt extract) and the Booster to get around 6% abv by overfilling to approx 2.5 gallons.
 
The current MR Beer booster is Coopers enhancer 1(post merger)
60% corn sugar/ 40% maltodexrin
If you have to use a prepackaged booster Coopers enhancer II is more fermentable and has some DME.
50% corn sugar/25%DME/25%maltodexrin

100%DME would be better.
 
Im not sure what OG and FG is, but I just looked at the ABV scale on the hydrometer. The beer tasted fine to me...in fact, great...and while all of my friends agreed, those who drank 3 or 4 said they felt very little "buzz".

The beer is all gone now, it was 2 gallons, and I let it ferment for two weeks. It was carbonated perfectly, and was as clear as it was golden.

I got my hydrometer at a yard sale after I had started brewing, so I only had the one reading.

My second batch is already in bottles.

Im a newbie, so go easy on me. :)

The "ABV" scale on hydrometers is misleading. They don't tell you what the ABV is at that moment, but rather are used in wine making to predict potential ABV post fermentation. It's a completely different game for beer. I don't know this kit in particular, but Mr. Beer kits typically sit around 5% alcohol. If it tastes good, it is probably somewhere around there.

To get actual abv, you need to compare a pre-fermentation reading to a post-fermentation reading. The hydrometer you have should have a few other scales. One will be "specific gravity", which should be a number like "1.050", and another should be degrees plato. Either will work fine for your purposes, but you do need a before and after reading to estimate abv.
 
I don't know this kit in particular, but Mr. Beer kits typically sit around 5% alcohol. If it tastes good, it is probably somewhere around there.

I don't know what the new kits are, and the specialty recipe kits were all over the place, but the one small can of HME + 1 booster package produces 3.7% ABV, and this is the case for the mentioned West Coast Pale Ale

I know, I've got a stack of kits sitting here that I bought up cheap a few months back. :mug:

BTW, the WCPA is pretty tasty stuff- I liked it with a half cup of honey (clover) added. Produced a very faint honey aroma, and dried it out nicely.
 
don't you read the potentional ABV scale before you pitch the yeast? I know I've used it that way and it was close to what beercalculas said my est. ABV would be. I personally don't care for ABV, but do know that my last IPA I used all my scrape malt so it came out 8%, but wasn't the best tasting and it felt like it had a heavier body from the extra malt.
 
don't you read the potentional ABV scale before you pitch the yeast? I know I've used it that way and it was close to what beercalculas said my est. ABV would be. I personally don't care for ABV, but do know that my last IPA I used all my scrape malt so it came out 8%, but wasn't the best tasting and it felt like it had a heavier body from the extra malt.

The Potential ABV scale is designed for wine, which ferments out much more completely than beer does. If you read 8% before fermentation, it's unlikely that you actually had an 8% beer in the end.
 
Okay, sounds good. On my next batch, Ill do a start reading, then an end reading. Thanks for all the replies/help!

-Chris
 
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