Increase ABV of Extract Brew

[dgoldb1]

I'm going to be brewing a Two Hearted (Dead Ringer) extract clone from NB tomorrow. OG is 1.064 with Wyeast 1056. Say I come in right at 1.064 and I ferment down to 1.016, that would give me a ABV of around 6.57%. Could I just add some dextrose (priming sugar) to my boil in order to increase my ABV? I want to shoot for 7% if possible. As I understand it, you need to add a lb of sugar per percent of alcohol. If I add 6 oz of priming sugar, that should get me close to 7%.

Is this correct?

 

[edmanster]

Yup... I do it all the time... Shouldn't lose too much body or mouth feel from it...

 

[dgoldb1]

Two additional questions:

1) Is there any advantage to using a less refined sugars instead of dextrose?

2) At what point in the boil should I add the sugar?

 

[edmanster]

Table sugar works fine and is more fermentable than dextrose... Any time in the boil just to desolve..

 

[PT Ray]

In this case you could easily add pound of dextrose or table sugar to boost the alcohol. It doesn't really matter which one.

It doesn't need to be boiled for any length of time so I would add it a minute or two before flame out.

 

[unionrdr]

#1-No,dextrose ferments out completely. No off flavors if you don't use ridiculously high amounts. Regular sugars can make cidery off flavors in amounts normally used in the fermentation.
#2-I'd add it at the end off the heat. At least,that's what I do so it doesn't burn,etc. Then slap a lid on the pot when all is mixed to let it steep while sanitizing everything to ferment.

 

[Jsmith82]

I'm brewing tonight and plan on adding 1lbs of dextrose to my beer, this addition will be directly into the strained wort in the fermentation bucket after it has cooled just before I pitch my yeast.

We brewed the 120 some weeks ago, the entire sugar addition(s) of that beer is post boil / cooled wort and by golly it definitely worked, quite well actually (was my first time adding sugar to a beer). Obviously neither of us are brewing mad scientist beers here this weekend but 0.5-1lbs dextrose into 5 gallons of cool wort should work great for you, pitch your yeast on top of it, mix the heck out of it, then cap it and cheers your buddy. Here's to another 5 gallons of beer!

 

[unionrdr]

Always aerate before you pitch. The yeast doesn't like being shaken like that. But yeah,dextrose at 1 pound or so is cool. But brewing sugar is better,since it's 20% maltodextrine that doesn't ferment out for head retention ,etc.

 

[Jsmith82]

Always aerate before you pitch. The yeast doesn't like being shaken like that. But yeah,dextrose at 1 pound or so is cool. But brewing sugar is better,since it's 20% maltodextrine that doesn't ferment out for head retention ,etc.

Did not know that, cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

You're welcome! Just trying to add something that worked well for me...

 

[Jrm1443]

What about adding 1 lb of clover honey at the end of the boil? I'm brewing a light ale right now with an abv of 3.7 and was looking to increase it a little.

 

[m1k3]

at the sacrifice of volume, adding less water will increase gravity.

1.064 at 5 gallons = 1.070 at 4.56 gallons = 1.075 at 4.25 gallons

(calculated with BeerSmith using Boil Off Tool)

 

[WouldBeBrewmaster]

What about adding 1 lb of clover honey at the end of the boil? I'm brewing a light ale right now with an abv of 3.7 and was looking to increase it a little.

That would work perfectly in a blonde ale.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[JimRausch]

What about adding 1 lb of clover honey at the end of the boil? I'm brewing a light ale right now with an abv of 3.7 and was looking to increase it a little.

Yes, I do it frequently. I know sugar is sugar, but my old hippy mentality makes me prefer honey over table sugar. 1 lb. of honey in a 5 gallon batch will raise the OG about 8 points. And it's pretty close to 100% fermentable.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I have been using 14oz of Dextrose. When I first started, the 5.4 gallon kits I got from Austin Homebrew had an option for a "1% Alcohol Boost" which turned out to be a 14oz packet of Dextrose. The Ales that I make are typically around 5-5.4% by recipe and with the additional Dextrose will put it around 6-6.4%. I also max out my volume to 6Gal which should push the ABV closer to 6%.