higher gravity

[beezee619]

If i want to add sugar for higher alcohol content how much do i add, what is the ratio i dont want to add to much, i brew ten gallon batches

 

[944play]

Sucrose is 46 points per pound per gallon. Is that what you are asking?

 

[beezee619]

So if i wanted to raise my og 46 points on a ten gal batch i would need to add ten lbs of sugar?

 

[BrewerBear]

If you don't care how it taste,just add sugar to gravity reading is as high as you want.

 

[beezee619]

I add during the boil right

 

[ArcLight]

Just be aware that your yeast will consume the table sugar (glucose) before Maltose. You run the risk of under attenuated (and bad tasting) beer.

Instead you might consider boiling the sugar in water (enough so that it can disolve, then cool it down) , and adding that after primary fermentation (wait a week).

 

[kh54s10]

Just adding sugar will boost your gravity, but will also thin out the beer and make it more dry.

A better route would be to increase the amount of grains in your recipe until you have the gravity you are looking for. You will also need to adjust you hop additions to keep the beer in balance.
If you use a recipe maker you can make these adjustments.

Beer calculus on Hopville.com is free and will make the calculations.

 

[solbes]

Some beers turn out better with a little sugar. Belgians work well with a healthy sugar addition where you want to boost ABV while keeping the body light. The sugar can be 15-20% of fermentables in some cases.

If you wanted to make a modest boost to other styles, I'd say a sugar addition of 5% of fermentables will be almost undetectable. You could go up to 10%, but this might be noticeable. I have not had issues with stalled ferments, but I always pitch plenty of yeast and use yeast nutrient also.

 

[stjackson]

Some beers turn out better with a little sugar. Belgians work well with a healthy sugar addition where you want to boost ABV while keeping the body light. The sugar can be 15-20% of fermentables in some cases.

If you wanted to make a modest boost to other styles, I'd say a sugar addition of 5% of fermentables will be almost undetectable. You could go up to 10%, but this might be noticeable. I have not had issues with stalled ferments, but I always pitch plenty of yeast and use yeast nutrient also.

This.

There is nothing wrong with using simple sugars to boost gravity and dry out a beer for styles where it is appropriate. I brewed a barleywine a few weeks ago with 1lb of plain sugar (not quite 4% of fermentables). It raised the gravity without adding to the body, and the rest of the grains in that recipe added plenty of body. I wouldn't add it to an English Bitter or a lite lager but, for certain styles it is a big help and (sometimes) necessary to get the right character.

 

[beezee619]

Here is my delima i have brewed two ipa's and after doing my gravity readings it seems one is 4.9% and the other is under 4% not sure whats going on, i am using 28-34 lbs of grain for 10 gal batches figured it would come out to at least a 6% maybee i am using too much sparge water and diluting it?

 

[solbes]

Whoa, that's a lot of grain. 12 lbs of grain gets me nearly 7% on a 5 gallon batch of IPA, which is around 77% efficiency. Lower gravity brews get me into the high 80's.

First thing I would look at is your crush. Then mash conditions (consistent temps, good stir w/ no dough balls, proper water). As long as you end up with 10 gallons (and not over), I don't see how your sparge volume would be the culprit. There are lots of threads here on lower efficiency. If you need to bump up your ABV a tad, you can always add 5-7% sugar in a pinch. Or better yet keep some DME on hand to boost your ABV up to targets until you figure out your efficiency issues.

 

[afr0byte]

Whoa, that's a lot of grain. 12 lbs of grain gets me nearly 7% on a 5 gallon batch of IPA, which is around 77% efficiency. Lower gravity brews get me into the high 80's.

First thing I would look at is your crush. Then mash conditions (consistent temps, good stir w/ no dough balls, proper water). As long as you end up with 10 gallons (and not over), I don't see how your sparge volume would be the culprit. There are lots of threads here on lower efficiency. If you need to bump up your ABV a tad, you can always add 5-7% sugar in a pinch. Or better yet keep some DME on hand to boost your ABV up to targets until you figure out your efficiency issues.

He's doing 10 gallon batches.

 

[solbes]

He's doing 10 gallon batches.

Umm, yup. But dividing his grain bill by 2 for a five gallon batch is 14-17 lbs to get 4-4.9% ABV. Those efficiencies are in the 30's or 40's percentage wise. Some room for improvement.