Increasing Alcohol by adding less water to kit?

I have been making wine for a couple months and decided to cross over to beer. I started with wine / cyser because it was easier and I wanted to get my feet wet.

I bought a blvd wheat kit from my home brew shop and plan on Saturday as my brew day. Now the alcohol content should be 5% according the the OG and FG listed on the box. This is a 5 gallon kit with Wheat extract malt, hops, priming sugar etc.

My question is if I add 1 gallon less water (bringing it down to 4 gallons) would this increase my points and my final alcohol content without making the beer taste nasty or would adding some cane or brown sugar to the total 5 gallons be a better option?

I would like to have a beer around 8% that still taste like the original beer with more bite.

Forgive me if this is a completely stupid question!

KC_Lupo

My LHBS sell a kicker can of LME just for that purpose. Or you could add more LME. or yeah, you could add less water.

Are you using a secondary? Only problem with secondary would be that you'd have a lot of air space in there when you transfer.

God Emporer BillyBrew said:

My LHBS sell a kicker can of LME just for that purpose. Or you could add more LME. or yeah, you could add less water.

Are you using a secondary? Only problem with secondary would be that you'd have a lot of air space in there when you transfer.

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Well my kit comes with 2 cans of LME and I was worried about it being a 5 gallon batch to begin with. I have a bunch of 5 gallon food grade buckets with lids and I was worried that it would completely fill up my bucket and not leave enough head space for foaming "clogging my airlock". Now I havn't measured how many gallons the buckets actually hold but they are standard looking 5 gallon bucks so I figure maybe 6 gallons if I'm lucky. So reducing my batch down to 4 gallons might be a good idea to run with? All my carboys are tied up with Cider and wine and will be for a month or so more. I was planning on using just a primary and tranfering to my bottling bucket 1 day prior to bottling to let the brew settle after the transfer so it's kind of a secondary.

Ok so how much more alcohol do you think I could gain if the OG and FG called for 5% at 5 gallons if I reduce my batch down to 4 gallons?

Will this increase my ferment time dramatically? My kit says 2 weeks to ferment at 5 gallons?

Will my beer have a stronger malt taste (i.e. making it a darker brew)?

What other things should I be aware of with reducing my kit a gallon?

Thanks!

I can see that space thing being kind of a problem. Why don't you just half the batch into two different buckets?

Adding kickers will make your beer darker. You could add clear belgian candy sugar, that will increase alcohol without adding body. Generally, I'd opt for adding more sugar over adding less water, but that's just me.

Judging by your name and the fact that you're making Boulevard, you're from my hometown, beautiful Kansas City. God I miss Boulevard. They just don't make beer like that in LA.

Prez said:

I can see that space thing being kind of a problem. Why don't you just half the batch into two different buckets?

Adding kickers will make your beer darker. You could add clear belgian candy sugar, that will increase alcohol without adding body. Generally, I'd opt for adding more sugar over adding less water, but that's just me.

Judging by your name and the fact that you're making Boulevard, you're from my hometown, beautiful Kansas City. God I miss Boulevard. They just don't make beer like that in LA.

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Yup been living here for the last 6 years or so. I love this town and the local brew is great. Well except for the drastic weather changes and the grandview triangle!

Would adding 1 pound of cane sugar be a bad idea? I would like to stay as close as possible to the original taste with a higher alcohol content. My dream would be Blvd wheat at 8% or 9%!

I'd stay away from household cane sugar because it has fructose in it which is harder to ferment and leaves a funny taste. Instead, use corn sugar like you would for bottling. Knowledgable sources say 1 lb. in a 5 gal. batch should raise your alcohol content .75%.

Imagine the Grandview triangle except everywhere, everyday. But it's 70 degrees everyday and the sun shines, so there's your trade-off. Oh, and no Boulevard.