Abv question.

[NHhomebrewer]

What is the easiest way to increase the ABV of any brew? Also I was thinking of doing the brewers best holiday extract kit for the holidays. What were people's impressions/ experiences with this kit?

 

[KevinW]

Increase the amount of fermentables!

More sugars for the yeast the more alcohol they can produce, but of course there are limits! Simple sugars like white or cane sugar can increase the ABV but can dry out your beer and in higher amounts can give off flavors.

More malt is probably the better way to go. If you do all grain and want more gravity but cannot increae the grain volume you can always add some LME (liquid malt extract) or DME (dry malt extract). This is an easy way to increase the fermentables.

Off hand I cannot remember the numbers but I seem to recall 1lb of extract will give a gravity increase of .007??? Example: 7lbs of extract should give you 1.049 OG but please do not take my word for it, just ballpark numbers!

Good luck

 

[beergolf]

Just remember that if you increase the OG then you will probably have to adjust the hops or the beer may get out of ballance.

 

[Just1pepsi]

easiest way? 1lb of dextrose in the boil.

 

[BrewKnurd]

As mentioned, you just need to add more sugar, be that in the form of maltose from extract, or simple sugars, or whatever. These are equally easy, in my opinion. You could also switch to a higher attenuating yeast, or if you're doing all grain, mash at a lower temperature.

Assuming you're going with adding more fermentables, what you should add depends on what you want from your final beer. Lets say you have a 1.050 beer that finished out at 1.010. If you want to crank up the alcohol, you could increase the OG to 1.060 by adding malt extract, and you would end up with a final gravity more like 1.012. Or, you could up the gravity with simple sugar, and you'd end up with a final gravity that's lower than 1.010, maybe 1.008. So how you want the beer to turn out influences what you add for more fermentables. Adding more malt will result in a higher finishing gravity and more body. Adding sugar will result in a lower finishing gravity and a thinner beer.