Alcohol

I use the coopers malt extract kits but my ? is, is there a way I can increase the ABV without adding more malt extract? I also heat up honey in the pot with the extract Not sure if that helps. More for a wow factor than to get sloppy drunk

A mini-mash will work best. Adding sugar will too but it's just not good to go over 20% sugar and that includes the honey. Cheap Vodka works.

What is a mini-mash? I am very new at this. I am only a cupel of weeks into this. I'm supposed to pick up a book from him soon called The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. And I do use dextrose if that is what u are talking about. About 1 1/5 tabl spoons per 2 L .

Also I want to know is this formula right for the ABV

SG - FG
--------
7.46 +.5 = ABV ?

the formula i use is

[(OG – FG) * 1.05] / FG = Alcohol By Mass (ABM)
ABM / 0.79 = ABV

I've also seen (OG-FG)*131 = ABV

They come out pretty close

First and foremost, do your reading. TCJOHB and How to Brew - By John Palmer are great resources. Brew your first batch or two exactly as the recipes state. Get a feel for what you're doing before modifying recipes and techniques.

As I recall The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing goes right from extract to all grain and doesn't mention partial mash. It's half way. Part of the fermentable sugars form extract and part for mashable grains. There is no reason a beginner can't do it but it will take a lot more reading to get an understanding of how to mash grains. The thing is that you can mash four pounds of grain fairly easily on a stove top with utensils you probably already have.

Just my two cents, here: Very often, adding dextrose or other sugars (including honey) merely to bump up the alcohol content often doesn't work too well. Sure, you get the extra alcohol, but you end up throwing your beer out of balance. You often end up with something too dry and, possibly, unpalatable. If you don't much care about that, then by all means, go nuts.

If you want a more alcoholic beer, you ought to look into some of the bigger beer styles and playing around there. You don't have to brew to style, for goodness sake, but you can learn a lot by researching those styles and how to brew them.


TL