will adding sugar ruin my beer

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I small amounts, say, 2 cups or less, it won't affect the tase and body too much. More than that, and you're inviting cidery flavors and generally thin beer. My preference is I want to add some ABV, is to use DME. It'll add body and flavor as well as the extra ABV.
 
Steel Horse said:
will adding sugar to my beer ruin it or just boost the alcohol level?

Depends on the beer and the amount of sugar you want to add. Maybe give us a recipe and we'll see what you've got.
 
Steel Horse said:
its a wheat with american hefeweizen yeast that all i know
That style is light enough that added sugars will significantly affect the flavor and body. Go with an extra lb of light DME to give it a little boost without hurting it.
 
Is this your first brew? Or have you tried this kit before and found it was missing something?

Before you go messing with it, give it a shot the way it was intended.
 
I actually just made a kit with some sugar. I didnt add the sugar so much to get more alcohol but I find it helps fermentation along. I used 1 coopers can kit draft 3.75# prehopped LME - 3# LME and about and a little less then 2 cups of sugar. I know the fermentation went well - I just racked wo secondary and the gravity was down to 1013 - I didnt take an OG but im just gussing with those ammount of fermentables I would be up at about the 1050 mark.

I think if you use some sugar it should be fine - I have used it in the past - as long as you use it sparingly it's fine. All depends on your style of taste - if you want an award winning maybe not - personally I am pretty simple - I just like beer that is refreshing and tastes good - so it works for me :)


cheers
 
Read http://www.howtobrew.com . That's the best advice we can give you. Generally, you don't want to add sugar to any beer during the boil unless the style specifically demands sugar (priming, of course, is a different animal - you need sugar there).
 
I wouldn't add sugar to a regular beer. It can thin and dry the beer out, even if you use it in small doses to avoid cidery flavors. Even if you add a whole pound of it (and I would NOT), you raise the ABV by only 1%. To me that is not worth it. I'd either go without that 1% boost, or use extract to boost it. The other thing that happens when you boost the ABV but don't change the hopping, you will have the unintended lower IBU rate (less bittering for the beer) so that the beer will be not just thinner and drier and possibly cidery- but less balanced with hops, too.

I'd make the beer as written, and see how it worked out, before I started tinkering with it. If you want a higher ABV brew next time, find a recipe with good balance and a ABV in the area you want.
 
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