How to boost ABV?

[Craig C]

New home brewer here (4 batches) and I was in my LHBS over the weekend purchasing a BB Grapefruit IPA kit and asked about how to simply boost the ABV of a kit recipe. He suggested adding 1/2 lb of corn sugar to the boil for every .50% increase in ABV. I have no reason to doubt this, but just wanted to see if most folks here would agree with this method?

 

[ancientmariner52]

Sure. More sugar = more alcohol. Doesn't have to be corn sugar, any fermentable sugar will do it. Obviously, different sugars will have different numbers and flavor effects.

 

[jtratcliff]

Corn sugar, table sugar, honey, more extract, etc... The straight sugars (corn, table, honey) will ferment out completely leaving little to no taste and a thinner body than that of the original recipe. You might also need to adjust the hops for balance if you add a lot... More malt extract will add to ABV, flavor, and possibly body, and will likely change the hops balance a bit, too....

I'd say brew it as per recipe 1st, then brew again w/ added fermentables and compare what the extra sugars do to the recipe...

 

[z-bob]

.05 looks too low for a half pound of sugar, but I haven't calculated it. (5 gallon batches, right?)

 

[Craig C]

Thanks guys. Yes, 5 gallons.

 

[Jwood]

.05% is way too low for 1/2 lb lol. I havent calculated it either but id be more inclined to believe he meant 0.5%.

 

[mr_stout]

For a 5 gallon batch you can add 4 lbs. of honey. Make sure that you have enough yeast to handle the higher gravity. Ferment for 3 weeks.

 

[Craig C]

Wow! I assume that you mean that I can add as much as 4 lbs of honey? Yes, I had my decimal in the wrong place in the OP. 1/2 lb of corn sugar will increase ABV by 1/2%. Does that apply to honey as well? It seems that corn sugar would be cheaper, but I really have no idea because I can't remember the last time I purchased honey. Ah the fun of learning a new hobby, particularly one as potentially complex as this. I am certainly enjoying it. Now I have to read through some posts to see why the bottle of stout I opened tonight spewed like hell when the first dozen I opened were light on carbonation.

 

[bpgreen]

You can add whatever you want. But my advice is to chase flavor rather than alcohol. If you dump in a bunch of simple sugar (table sugar, honey, etc) you'll increase the alcohol content, but you probably won't like the beer unless you only want high ABV and don't care about flavor.

 

[z-bob]

What recipe are you starting with? (this is an extract kit, right?)

If it has lots of malt, you can probably get away with goosing it with a little sugar without messing it up. But not much. If it already has any kind of simple sugar, or if it's a kinda low alcohol all-malt beer (not much malt extract but no added sugar either), you'd best leave it alone or add a little dry malt extract instead of sugar.

You said it's an IPA, so it probably has plenty of malt but you never know. Malt extract is expensive.

 

[Seanto]

Any sugar will do this, but keep in mind you are effectively altering the the balance of the recipe and it will effect the flavor of the end product. I usually only add sugar to belgian beers to achieve a dryer end product.

Point is, rather than add sugar to a perfectly fine recipe, i recommend simply changing the base recipe instead to include more malt, and more hops to balance out the addition unless your effort is to produce a dryer beer. If you simply want to get more ****** up on the beer and throw flavor to the wind, then all the more power to you!

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I don't think I'd simply add sugar. A lot of DIPA recipes use some sugar so that they don't end up with a relatively high FG, but you want a grain bill and hops to balance that out. You could take a 6% IPA and jack it up to 8.5% with nothing but sugar, but it would probably be thin and have a noticeable boozy note to it.

Good recipes are all about balance: you want to balance malt flavor, alcohol, and hops to get the right blend for the style (or for what you want if, like me, you don't worry about adhering to any particular style guidelines).

If you haven't done so, I'd recommend reading at least a dozen recipes for any given general style you want to brew. Read up on the ingredients, understand what they're bringing to the flavor profile. Brew one or two that look interesting and assess the flavors. See what you might want to tweak. It's a great way to get up to speed on how recipes are built and you get to drink some tasty beer in the process.

Also, do some reading on ABV/IBU and/or OG-FG/IBU balance. There are some great articles about ratios for these based on style that can help you scale hops to balance out an increase in alcohol and/or malt flavors. This is one that I really like and I've built a spreadsheet to quickly assess my recipes from this perspective.

 

[kh54s10]

The best way to increase ABV is to brew a kit or recipe that is designed for the ABV you desire. As already noted, just adding sugar is going to change the balance of the beer in question.