Increasing the ABV

A couple months ago I made a Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout out of a milk stout extract kit. It was good, but with the bigger flavors that I got from the additives, I'd like to try and remake it and up the ABV. (It came out at 5.5% and I'd like to go up to 8
% or 9%)

What do I need to do to accomplish that?

I am guessing add more DME or LME, but what else? Do I need to increase the hops? Do I need to increase the flavorings that I add?

Any input is appreciated!

Adding more partially fermentable sugars like malt extract will also slightly increase your FG as well giving you a sweeter beer, which you might want to balance with a few more points of IBUs. Biermuncher has a handy graph to help you figure that out https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/biermuncher-your-gravity-hops-ratio-graphs-43530/.

As for the recipe I suggest that you find a free recipe calculator and put in the recipe so you can figure it out for yourself, but my guess is you'll need somewhere between 1-3lbs of liquid extract.

I thought you could just add corn sugar to the wort to increase the alcohol without affecting the body or taste of the beer.

Butter said:

I thought you could just add corn sugar to the wort to increase the alcohol without affecting the body or taste of the beer.

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If you replace extract with sugar, you will get a thinner beer with less taste. If you just add corn sugar on top of an existing recipe, it becomes trickier. The beer still has the same residual sugars, etc., but the higher alcohol level requires more of them to keep up. So we're in the realm of perceptions and balance.

I think I depends on how much sugar you add.

Corn sugar, like table sugar will thin out a beer, reducing mouth feel and body. It's good for about a 1% alcohol boost without negatively effecting the recipe in a very noticeable way.

I was talking about a cup or two of corn sugar. Nothing crazy like a pound.

errica said:

A couple months ago I made a Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout out of a milk stout extract kit. It was good, but with the bigger flavors that I got from the additives, I'd like to try and remake it and up the ABV. (It came out at 5.5% and I'd like to go up to 8
% or 9%)

What do I need to do to accomplish that?

I am guessing add more DME or LME, but what else? Do I need to increase the hops? Do I need to increase the flavorings that I add?

Click to expand...

To increase 5 gallons by 3% abv, you will need to add about 115 gravity points, which is about 2.5 lbs DME or 3 lbs LME.

Adding just extract will also increase the FG. I'd suggest you sub about half a pound of table sugar for half pound of DME (2 lbs DME + 0.5 lbs sugar). The sugar will offset some of the extract sweetness.

If you want more roast flavor too, you should adjust steeping grains accordingly.

Butter said:

I was talking about a cup or two of corn sugar. Nothing crazy like a pound.

Click to expand...

2 cups of sugar is about a pound!

Lol, I guess it is. My mistake.