I want all of my brews to be high ABV%

I'm not skilled enough to create my own recipes... yet.

In the mean time, would there be any major problems with just adding, say, a pound of honey or a cup of sugar at the beginning of the boil to every recipe I follow? I'd still follow the rest of the recipe to a T.

Obviously the gravity measurements wouldn't match, but I'm okay with that for now. I understand the resulting beer wouldn't be an exact clone of the recipe I followed, but I'm okay with that too.

Are high ABV beer recipes designed to mask the taste of the extra alcohol?

Would anything else need to be considered for a successful brew, like yeast pitching, etc?


Edit: I'm All Grain, if that matters...

Yes, typical recipes are balanced so their ingredients meld nicely. Much like cheap whiskey burns like crazy and good whiskey is smooth, so does malt profile and hop bitterness blend together with alcohol content to create a well crafted beer.

If you just add a lb of honey or whatever to the recipe then you won't have a balanced recipe at all. In fact you'll have quite the opposite. You'll also thin out the mouthfeel of the beer because simple sugars ferment out completely.

If a big beer is what you're after, you'll also have to understand that it will take more time, more ingredients, and more yeast. Starters will be a must.

If all you're after is something to get blitzed on I'm not sure this is the place to find out how to do it. With that said, if for some reason all your favorite beers happen to be high ABV brews, and you want to learn how to make those perfectly balanced "sipper" beers, then welcome!

This will produce a drier beer and less mouth feel. And depending on the expected OG, you might need more yeast. Rule of thumb is a starter/multi pitch packs for >1.060 Although mrmalty.com has a calculator for you to use.

By throwing in more honey/sugar you can throw off the balance of the beer and make something not-so-great. I don't know how to fix the balance in a case like this, but generally, more hops will balance increased gravity beers.

B

Use more extract, add more bittering hops to compensate to keep the same bitterness:gravity ratio and to account for the lower utilization due to the gravity increase. Alternatively brew bigger styles, instead of a pale ale why not try doing an IPA, or stout-> RIS etc.

AHBS has an option for an alcohol boost to any of its recipes. Not a bad way to go!

For example:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_612&products_id=11596

That beer will keep you warm if you add 1%