Can I add sugar to boost ABV

[RippinLt]

I have an American Amber ingredient kit from brewers best. Could I simply add some corn sugar to the end of the boil to get some added fermentables?

 

[midlo-brewer]

Sugar will boost abv, but it may thin it out or add a cidery taste. Try some DME if you can get your hands on some....

 

[Waterboy42]

I'm assuming this is an extract, so yes. AG, just mash a little lower.

 

[Gear101]

some more two row would be better, but yes you can

 

[Swib]

Also, don't overdo it. Recipes are designed to produce balanced beers. Boosting the alcohol will start to imbalance things, boosting it too far will just make it taste bad. Basically, just take it easy, don't try to double the alcohol or you'll find the other flavors (malt and hops) will be lost in the beer.

Cheers.

 

[bottlebomber]

If you want to add alcohol to your beer I recommend a shot of cheap vodka on the side. At least that way you can chase it down with some good tasting beer. I don't recommend going down the road of adding sugar to beer, especially with something like an amber where the mouthfeel is half the drinking experience. If it was a tripel, maybe.

 

[venquessa]

Over we here we have several high ABV beers. Almost all of them taste foul. Carlsberg Special brew is like drinking paint stripper. Satzenbreu is about the only drinkable one, it's expensive, strong (about 7%), but still not a beer you can throw into you.

I just don't think beer is meant to be a "get me smashed quick" beverage. For that you probably want cider, wine.... or vodka.

 

[jgln]

I tried it with a all grain blackberry (real blackberries) beer and it pretty much ruined it. It is drinkable and will give you a quick buzz but I wouldn't do it again. My idea was if the beer was lower in alcohol (and tasted good) it would be gone in a few weeks. I wanted this one to last....it did. Waste of grain, blackberries and time.

If you insist do a little and not on something you won't worry so much about ruining the taste. Then you can decide if that is the way you want to go. I say +1 for DME.

 

[JLem]

If you want to boost ABV on this beer I would add more extract or grain and then adjust the hopping (increase bittering). Sugar can be used to boost ABV, but will thin out the beer, which is not intrinsically a bad thing, just probably not what you want for this beer. I routinely add up to 10% sugar of some type to high gravity beers to help dry them out some.