Abv

[Abrayton]

What would be the best way to increase the ABV of an extract kit beer. I have a honey witbier and I would like to set aside one gallon and attempt to turn it into an "imperial"

 

[Sailingeric]

you could add sugar but that would dry it out. Add more LME/ DME will raise the ABV but can make for a sweeter beer so you could add a bit more hops to offset the sweet.

 

[Gameface]

There is a bit of a misunderstanding about what adding sugar does. Adding sugar does not dry a beer out. Whatever residual (unfermentable) sugars are there now will still be there no matter how much simple sugar you add. But it will increase abv without adding any additional body or sweetness.

If all you want is more alcohol adding simple sugar, like table sugar or dextrose, is the way to go. If you'd like a little additional body to go with the higher abv, use some dry malt extract. If you want it somewhere in the middle use some of each.

 

[slym2none]

More clarification - if you have a recipe that calls for 10 pounds of base malt and you replace 1 pound of that base malt with sugar, then THAT will dry your beer out.

 

[m00ps]

best way would be to use a online beer recipe calculator to see how much the OG will change from however much sugar or dme you want to add. 4oz may be a good place to start for 1gal. Boil this in water, let it cool, then add it to your separate 1gal fermentor

 

[HomebrewSupply]

Since it's a honey witbier, you could even try using honey (instead of sugar or DME/LME as suggested above) to up the gravity.

 

[slym2none]

Just remember, the more malt/sugar you add, the more the ratios of the hops:malt is off. Replacing one with another is OK, but if you are adding 1 pound of malt/sugar to a recipe that already calls for a certain amount of malt, you might need to add more hops to get back to the original IBUs.

 

[Homercidal]

Sugar is fine, but it tends to make a beer feel like it has less body and less flavor. I'd try adding a bit of sugar and a bit of malt to up the ABV while trying to balance the flavor profile.

 

[Abrayton]

Thanks for the help. I think I will add 4oz of honey. My question now is when and how do I separate the amount I want to use to make the one gallon batch and then add the honey?

 

[HomebrewSupply]

Thanks for the help. I think I will add 4oz of honey. My question now is when and how do I separate the amount I want to use to make the one gallon batch and then add the honey?

You've got a few options there. You could pull it off with a few minutes left in the boil, move it to another pot and add the honey then, or you could even add it a day or so after fermentation starts.

 

[Abrayton]

The recipe calls for a partial boil and then add water to get to five gallons. Is it ok to boil all five gallons at once? Seem it will be much easier to calculate the removal of one gallon that way?

 

[GHBWNY]

The recipe calls for a partial boil and then add water to get to five gallons. Is it ok to boil all five gallons at once? Seem it will be much easier to calculate the removal of one gallon that way?

The partial boil/top off instructions in an extract kit are both to eliminate the boil-off rate issues associated with all-grain, and also to cool down the wort quickly. If you can boil all 5 gal, split it off and have a way to quickly cool both portions, then you're good to go. But if cooling the wort in both portions within a reasonable length of time isn't possible, you may not achieve a good cold break where rapid cooling of the wort lessens the possibility of chill haze after your beer is bottled.

 

[Abrayton]

If I do a three gallon boil how much of the wort would I need to set aside for a one gallon side-batch I plan to add extra honey to and then how much water would I top each batch off with since one batch has been separated to create two unequal portions?