Need Help Raising ABV Please

[ILBMF]

I make my wife a bourbon oak red ale for the holidays and I want to bump the ABV % up by about 1.5%-2.0% I'll list the grain bill and hop schedule. A little help would be great!

10 Gallon

18.0 lbs 2 row
2.0 lbs British crystal
1.0 US Crystal 40
2.66 oz chocolate malt (74 grams)
1.32 oz black patent malt (32 grams)

2.0 oz Willamette 4.5% (60 min)
1.0 oz Willamette 4.5% (50 min)
2.0 oz Yak Goldings 4.7% (0 min)
1.0 oz Willamette 4.5% (0 min)

 

[Owly055]

It's going to have plenty of sweetness, so I would bump the alcohol up using 3 pounds of ordinary cane sugar added to the boil. This will add alcohol, but no sweetness, and leave the flavor basically unchanged. Adding sugar is like pouring in everclear... but cheaper.

H.W.

I make my wife a bourbon oak red ale for the holidays and I want to bump the ABV % up by about 1.5%-2.0% I'll list the grain bill and hop schedule. A little help would be great!

10 Gallon

18.0 lbs 2 row
2.0 lbs British crystal
1.0 US Crystal 40
2.66 oz chocolate malt (74 grams)
1.32 oz black patent malt (32 grams)

2.0 oz Willamette 4.5% (60 min)
1.0 oz Willamette 4.5% (50 min)
2.0 oz Yak Goldings 4.7% (0 min)
1.0 oz Willamette 4.5% (0 min)

 

[ILBMF]

That sounds simple enough.

 

[ILBMF]

That won't dry it out like corn sugar will it?

 

[Bosh]

That won't dry it out like corn sugar will it?

It'll dry it out like corn sugar. That's probably a good thing for a really big beer.

 

[dude_brewery]

It'll dry it out like corn sugar. That's probably a good thing for a really big beer.

If you want to ensure that the yeast fully attenuates the grain sugar, you could add the cane sugar a few days after primary fermentation has started (when the specific gravity gets around 1.02-1.025, if you're measuring). Just boil it in a couple cups of water to sterilize and make a syrup.

Malt sugar takes a bit more work for yeast to digest. So by introducing the cane sugar after the malts have been mostly fermented, you force the yeast to convert the more difficult sugar before giving them a treat of the very easily digested cane sugar.
If it's all introduced at the same time, the yeast may eat all the cane sugar and then get lazy partway through your grain sugar.

I use this technique for a Belgian dark strong, and it works great (OG: 1.11 FG:1.012).

 

[Owly055]

dry out is absolute hogwash......... ADDING sugar to an existing recipe does NOT dry it out. Substituting sugar for malt does. I don't know where this nonsense got started but it is NOT true. I use sugar frequently, and I can tell you adding sugar does NOT dry a beer out! I suggest some of the people who keep repeating this try it. Take a recipe you like, add enough sugar, corn or cane, or whatever, and compare the results with the orignal product...... It'll have a bit more "whoop ass", but it will not be drier.

H.W.

 

[ILBMF]

Thanks guys, I have a good idea what I will do.

 

[pm5k00]

If you add sugar I would not let the amount be over 10% of your grain bill. I use sugar often for IPA and Belgians, and see no problem with using it. If you do add sugar add it during the last 15 minutes or so to avoid carmelization and added flavor, or add a few days into fermentation after the yeast have grown enough.

You could also just scale the recipe in full and go all malt.

Don't forget your IBUS will drop with higher ABV so you will want to adjust your hops too.

 

[ILBMF]

I am planning to add some hops to the 60 min addition. Probably going to add a lb or two of 2 row malt and maybe 1.5 lbs sugar.