I will be brewing a Brown English Ale from a kit this weekend. Half LME and half DME. expected ABV is only a 4.5. Any thoughts on how to increase for a 5 gallon batch? More LME?? Right now it calls for a 3lb can of Light Malt, and 2.5 lbs of DME. This is an experimental batch so willing to try something new.
I want to increase the ABV of an extract brew
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VikeMan
It ain't all burritos and strippers, my friend.
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Yes, more extract would be the way to do it. If you have a choice, use DME rather than LME. It's generally a fresher product.
Assuming the 4.5% ABV estimate for the kit is correct, you can basically just scale up the extract amount(s) linearly to get to your target. But note that a pound of LME is equivalent to about 0.8 pounds of DME.
Assuming the 4.5% ABV estimate for the kit is correct, you can basically just scale up the extract amount(s) linearly to get to your target. But note that a pound of LME is equivalent to about 0.8 pounds of DME.
Plain sugar works great in extract brewing. Adding a pound at the end of the boil will increase alcohol by about 1%.
FromZwolle
I don't want to be cremated, I want to be malted.
honey would be my vote in a brown ale recipe. it should dry things out a little, which balances out the relatively unfermentable nature of liquid extracts.
sebastienzeman18
The ShortCanadian
I would go with either corn sugar (you can put in less to get more abv), honey as @FromZwolle mentions, or even maple syrup if you want a little twist. If you go the maple syrup route I would add it in the secondary fermenter, as you want to preserve the woodsy piney taste it has. If you are new to brewing I would stick with corn sugar though.
If you use a simple sugar to increase the alcohol content it will work but will dry the beer some and disturb the ratio of beer to hops a little too. I'd be tempted to use a dry malt extract that is of similar color to the beer you are making. Maybe something like this:
https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/fermenters-favorites-briess-sparkling-amber-dme
https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/fermenters-favorites-briess-sparkling-amber-dme
Extract batches tend to finish with a relatively high FG compared to similar all-grain beers (higher FG means a sweeter tasting product). This seems to be a major complaint of extract brewers. Adding some simple sugar will both increase alcohol and lower the FG. Adding 1 lb of table sugar to 5 gallons will increase abv by ~1.3% and lower the FG by about a point.
Be careful using too much sugar. It not only dries out the beer, but lowers the body, and thins out the beer. I would not exceed 10% of the fermentables as sugar in most beers (Belgians are an exception). You can use most any sugar, white, brown, Turbinado, honey, corn sugar, etc. Both corn sugar and honey have less fermentable sugars than plain table sugar. Do not use powdered or confectioners sugar, as it contains cornstarch. Cornstarch will not ruin the beer, but will probably make it cloudy.
If concerned about the loss of body, use roughly 2/3rds extract and 1/3rd sugar, and that should leave the FG and body similar to the original product.
Be careful using too much sugar. It not only dries out the beer, but lowers the body, and thins out the beer. I would not exceed 10% of the fermentables as sugar in most beers (Belgians are an exception). You can use most any sugar, white, brown, Turbinado, honey, corn sugar, etc. Both corn sugar and honey have less fermentable sugars than plain table sugar. Do not use powdered or confectioners sugar, as it contains cornstarch. Cornstarch will not ruin the beer, but will probably make it cloudy.
If concerned about the loss of body, use roughly 2/3rds extract and 1/3rd sugar, and that should leave the FG and body similar to the original product.
BrewnWKopperKat
ʘ‿ʘ
Maybe find and brew a brown ale recipe with the approximate ABV you are looking for?
hoffmeister
Well-Known Member
I would agree with Calder, feel free to use sugar in your British style beers, but limit the amount you use. Historically speaking, a lot of British brewers used sugar to some degree and it totally fits the style, provided you don't overdo it. Brown sugar, raw sugar, white table sugar are all great additions to traditional British beers. I usually dissolve the sugar in a separate pot of boiling water and add it alongside the malt extract, but there are a lot of options for adding it to the wort.
Honey does not dry out the beer. Replacing malt sugars with honey dries out the beer. Adding honey to an existing recipe just bumps the abv but does not dry the beer out.
Steveruch
Well-Known Member
I'm beginning to think that the extracts today are made better than they were say 20 years ago when I was still using a lot of extract and couldn't get any batch to ferment lower than 1.018 ever.
Steveruch
Well-Known Member
Most of my batches are dme and finish in the 1.010-1.012 range.
