Increase final alcohol

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mparmer

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I understand that to in order to increase my final alcohol content, I can add a lb or 2 of brown sugar to the boil of my extract kit. How much gravity reading per Lb can I expect and are there any issues with this causing other issues, esp stuck fermentations due to the increased alcohol content.

Thanks!!!!!
 
I use this for calculating several factors in my beer, others will say they use Brewsmith, but it is not ported to Linux yet.

Brown sugar will change the flavor of the finished beer. I've used flaked corn, corn sugar (dextrose) and table sugar for added alcohol when needed. Unless you are doing an Imperial India Pale Ale (or other gigantic style beer), you probably will not bump into the alcohol tolerance for the yeast.
 
True, adding a couple of pounds of sugar will add more fermentables and increase the final ABV but it is also going to adversely affect the body, flavor and balance of the original recipe. Do you want to make good tasting beer or do you want to make as much alcohol as possible? If you are in this for anything resembling quality, rather than dump sugar into an existing brew try doing a good recipe for a style that is designed to make stronger beer. :mug:
 
It all depends on the style. If it's a style that can benefit from being a little dryer and a bit lighter in body, then go ahead. Just don't get too high of a percentage of fermentables from plain sugar. A pound or maybe two would probably be ok with many styles.

If it's something that needs more body then it would be out of place and you should try to design the beer to be bigger from the start rather than trying to bump it up cheaply with sugar.
 
Ok, I see what you are saying, but it's a porter ale so it may be fine to just lighten it up a bit. I'll bet it will still be good beer but Big Ed makes a good point, the final product will no doubt be best if the recipe called for the proper balance of all ingredients AND projected an alcohol % where I would like it to be. Thanks again, you guy's have helped me so much!!!!
 
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