How much whiskey?

[SmokeyRydr]

due to a timing failure on my part, I kegged 5g of a strong belgian before it finished. the resulting beer is only 7%. i want to add some whiskey to bring it up to about 8% and add some bourbon notes.

are their any guidelines for adding whiskey to increase gravity?

 

[SmokeyRydr]

Here's my quick math...

• 5 gal = 640 oz, and 1% of 640 is 64oz.
• So I need to add 64oz of alcohol to raise the alcohol 1%
• Whiskey is 80% alcohol. 64oz divided by .8 is 85. So I need to add 85oz of whiskey to raise 5 gal by 1% alcohol.

make sense?

 

[SmokeyRydr]

Here's my quick math...

• 5 gal = 640 oz, and 1% of 640 is 64oz.
• So I need to add 64oz of alcohol to raise the alcohol 1%
• Whiskey is 80% alcohol. 64oz divided by .8 is 85. So I need to add 85oz of whiskey to raise 5 gal by 1% alcohol.

make sense?

Ok, bad math... Revised below
* 5 gal = 640 oz, and 1% of 640 is 6.4oz.
* So I need to add 6.4oz of alcohol to raise the alcohol 1%
* Whiskey is 80 proof or 40% alcohol. 6.4oz divided by .4 is 16. So I need to add 16oz of whiskey to raise 5 gal by 1% alcohol.

 

[Calder]

Don't add Whiskey to increase alcohol. Add Whiskey to create/make/improve the beer you have. The Whiskey should be a flavor component, not an additive to reach a particular alcohol.

The goal should be to create a beer that tastes good, not one that 8% alcohol.

It is too late to work out numbers, but yes, 16 ozs of 80 proof alcohol will get you roughly 1%. You also need to factor in the volume increase, but that is minimal.

It may be a wonderful beer, but I'm not sure I would mix a Belgian with Whiskey.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Aside from adding whiskey to beer to bring the alcohol level up being a 'not so good idea', what you want to do is plug your numbers into an algebraic mixture table. Just Google it - you'll find it.

 

[grampamark]

How much whiskey? Keep pouring, I’ll tell you when...

 

[SmokeyRydr]

Don't add Whiskey to increase alcohol. Add Whiskey to create/make/improve the beer you have. The Whiskey should be a flavor component, not an additive to reach a particular alcohol.

The goal should be to create a beer that tastes good, not one that 8% alcohol.

It is too late to work out numbers, but yes, 16 ozs of 80 proof alcohol will get you roughly 1%. You also need to factor in the volume increase, but that is minimal.

It may be a wonderful beer, but I'm not sure I would mix a Belgian with Whiskey.

Your right, I'm adding it for flavor. Because I stopped fermentation too early, the alcohol / residual sugar balance was way off.

I've been experimenting with alcohol addatives and Jack Daniels works really well with my dark strong Belgian ale.

I wanted the calculation as a guide, but I'll start adding it slowly to taste.

 

[Soulshine2]

Here's my quick math...

• 5 gal = 640 oz, and 1% of 640 is 64oz.
• So I need to add 64oz of alcohol to raise the alcohol 1%
• Whiskey is 80% alcohol. 64oz divided by .8 is 85. So I need to add 85oz of whiskey to raise 5 gal by 1% alcohol.

make sense?

no ,64 is 10% of 640 ... your answer should be 6.4