Another ABV thread

OK.. here is the simple and short of it.. Yet another noob question.

If I have a 5 gal recipe, but make only 4.3 gallons from it.. logic dictates I have more sugar per gallon.

More sugar per gallon would lead me to believe I should have a higher ABV..? Correct..?

Recipe says 5-5.5% can I expect a proportional change ? Say up to the 6.0% range..

That said, when I go to the secondary.. (Due to excess proteins and sugars from boiling the grains too long.. long story) could I spike it with a little more sugar and/or yeast to both hopefully clarify the batch and get more ABV.

I should mention had a few stouts with close to 8%-9% ABV and there was something about them that was great. Wondering if maybe I could move my stout closer to that range OR is this somethign I have to do with the reciepe at the boil.

What about just adding an alcohol like Everclear or Soju to the batch prior the bottling..?

Here's the math:

Gravity of batch is (let's say) 1.050. Volume of batch is 5 gallons. Total sugar is 50*5=250 gravity points. That same sugar content in a different volume is simply the gravity points divided by the new volume. In your case, 250/4.3 -- this gives an OG of 1.058, a bit higher than the 1.050.

Your alcohol will be the difference in your OG-FG * 131.

I would not add actual alcohol to the batch at all.

What about adding dilution of say a cup of sugar and water to secondary..? Will that boost it ?

CDGoin said:

What about adding dilution of say a cup of sugar and water to secondary..? Will that boost it ?

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Yes, but do you have a hydrometer?

1 cup is about 1/2 lb.
Sugar is about 46 ppg
23 points in 4.3 gallons is a 5 point increase.

So, if your og was 1.050, it would effectively be 1.055 after adding a cup of sugar. But depending on the type of sugar, it could be different. You can plug that into the equation above and find a 5 point increase is about 0.65% abv. IMO not worth it. Adding simple sugars can impact the taste, for better or worse. I find I don't like it in any beer I've done it with, and now avoid it.

Hmm.. thanks will work that out.. Thanks for the math.. and I do have a hydrometer

Was thinking of maybe using honey or molasses for taste reasons.

Also part of this is that its my first batch and had some "Issues" with my wort.. that May or maynot show up after fermentation. Just throwing ideas around until I see what I got to deal within a few days.

I always soup up my kits by tossing into the boil an extra pound of DME, 2 pounds dark brown sugar and a cup of molassas.

CDGoin said:

Was thinking of maybe using honey or molasses for taste reasons.

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if you use honey, use something with decent strong flavor, and add directly. I never pasteurized it, and never had a problem. Very little honey flavor survives. I used a full pound several times, very subtle.

A little molasses goes a long way. Plenty of comments on that around the forum.

Just did a straight up Octoberfest Kit, but added 2 lbs of honey to the boil. Bumped recipe OG from 1.52 to 1.62.. The calculators say if FG is same then I should be up 1.5% in the 7% ABv range. Does that sound right..? Especially if I give it time and lager like I am supposed to.. or should I bump temps and treat like a Ale.. what if don't lager but keep in the 50s through out the fermentation..?

CDGoin said:

Just did a straight up Octoberfest Kit, but added 2 lbs of honey to the boil. Bumped recipe OG from 1.52 to 1.62.. The calculators say if FG is same then I should be up 1.5% in the 7% ABv range. Does that sound right..? Especially if I give it time and lager like I am supposed to.. or should I bump temps and treat like a Ale.. what if don't lager but keep in the 50s through out the fermentation..?

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My calculator says more like 1.3%, but yeah, that ballpark. If you used lager yeast, I definitely wouldn't raise it to ale temps. Maybe if it's finished, but still fermenting could produce some crazy flavors. You could keep it in the 50's. The lower temps for extended aging are more for clarification I believe. Just remember lagers take much longer than ales to finish up, so keep an eye on those temps.

It had a lager style yeast, the kit said you could do it both ways (So maybe there is a yeast that can work both ways..?) This is the kit I used

Could I have kept it at the 1.075 range at 5 gallons and been OK. I was concerned the OG was too high.

CDGoin said:

It had a lager style yeast, the kit said you could do it both ways (So maybe there is a yeast that can work both ways..?) This is the kit I used

Could I have kept it at the 1.075 range at 5 gallons and been OK. I was concerned the OG was too high.

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Depends on the dry yeast. Something for a california common could go either way but still you're talking cool ale temps for best results. A true lager yeast is best kept in the 50's.

Kits tend to be about 80% of what you need to know to make drinkable beer, without a lot of equipment or a book of procedures. For example, most people here would not recommend pitching dry yeast directly into wort (though many do, and I have). The next level of details you can get on this forum, like what to expect from 2lbs of honey in the boil. Might dry it out.

OG is style related, but also personal preference. If you like it, drink it. If you are brewing for competitions, follow styles. So, 1.075 is somewhat up to what you like. It will ferment, just be sure you can add enough oxygen for bigger beers and use yeast pitch rate calculators.

Worst case, you lose some ingredients, and change things for next time.

I did activate the yeast before pitching.. I do occasionally listen and absorb what I read.. (Sometimes I'm just hard headed..)

Anyway, since I knew 1.060 was in the "Safe" starting range of the hydrometer for beer and wasn't sure of 1.075 was, I bumped up the water to 1.062. I am running low on room in the fermentor (1-1/2 gallon of space) but temps are in the mid-50s in the garage without me turning up the heater. So perfect for the lager yeast, but wasnt sure about keeping in on the yeast longer, and then just cold crashing.. Instead of lagering in the frig to give the yeast more time to do their magic.

Will probably secondary to give them a small boost of oxygen and clean up the beer.

One of these days I will go by the recipe.. but thinking its just time to ditch the pre-made recipes (Since I don't pay any dang attention to them anyway ) and take the dive into all-grain. At this point I only need a mashtun.

I think I will wait though for these two batches to age up and then find out how good or bad I am at this first before moving on. Can't learn from my mistakes, or my successes if I don't drink the beer first to know if I have had either.

in the meantime get some books on brewing and read them. you can check out Palmers "How to Brew" for free online. experimenting is great if you have a baseline for your procedures, but without any background on proper brewing techniques, you are not able to quantify anything you are experimenting with. that is, you won't know if your tests are changing anything because you have yet to set any kind of standard procedure. you are in the right place, keep going man!

I have been reading a lot, here and in books.

With my Engineer background.. I tend to like to fiddle with things.

I also would like think that I am a pretty good cook and baker.

Add all three together and I know enough to be dangerous, and I'm willing to experiment. Which is probably why after two batch runs I still have yet to do a recipe "by the book"..

Can't wait to find out what my final results will be. I figure between the stout and a ocktoberfest I will know if my instincts are good.. or bad.

If Bad, I will go back to basics and do a few more extracts and stick to the recipes

IF Good, on to all-grain and more experimenting