Increasing ABV in AG beer while maintaining ingredient balance (no sugar)

[Veronis]

I made an AG sweet stout that turned out very well, but it was only 4% ABV.

I want to try to make the same recipe again, except make it closer to 6% ABV.

I use BeerSmith, so do I just need to increase the ingredients so it's ~6%, and keep the percentages the same as the 4% version? E.g. if I use 59.5% base malt in the 4% version, I assume I should maintain the 59.5% base malt in the 6% version, and since I'm using 7.3% roasted barley in the 4% version, I figured I should up that (and all other grain %'s) so that in the 6% version, roasted barley is still 7.3%.

Secondly, for the hops, I'm using 3 oz of hops instead of 2 oz, to increase the relative bitterness by an additional third, and have taken into account increasing the flavor/aroma hop amounts as well, as best I could. This took it from ~21 IBU to ~33 IBU. I've also increased the lactose amount from 0.5 lbs to 0.75 lbs, maintaining its 5% portion of the recipe.

Can anyone offer any advice as to whether this is a good approach, and if not, what is? I searched the forums and all I can find is discussions on sugar, honey, molasses, etc. to increase ABV.

 

[cheezydemon3]

That is correct. Make sure to adjust hops accordingly too.

 

[motorneuron]

Yes. For small adjustments in ABV, and for beers in a "standard" OG range of about 1.045 to 1.060, you can pretty much just scale everything. I think the stumbling block comes when you go outside the "normal" OG range of 1.045-1.060. Beers with high or low OGs will be different and no longer linear. That's because on the low end of OG, beer can finish watery and thin, and on the high end of OG, beer can finish thick and sweet.

For example, a beer that is originally 1.050, but scaled down to 1.035 (say), will need different ingredients and process to make sure it's not just watery. By contrast, taking a 1.050 beer and scaling it up to 1.080 will require some non-linear changes to make sure that you don't just get a very sweet, thick mess at the end.

 

[rklinck]

I have to respectfully disagree with the prior responses on this one. The base malt is there primarily to add sugars (both fermentable and nonfermentable) not flavors. The roast barley and any other specialty grains are there primarily to add flavor. Using your example of going from 4% to 6%, you are going to be upping your specialty grains by 50%. If you do this and keep the volume the same, you are going to increase the flavor contributions from these grains considerably. If you are using flaked barley (or another similar flaked grain), that is to add body. You don't need to increase this when you scale up.

I would alter my recipe by adding more base grains and not changing specialties malts. I am not in front of my computer that has my Beersmith, so my numbers won't be exact, but here is an example from my recipes. I make a dry stout that is about 4.8% ABV and has 1.5 lbs of dark grains (combination of roasted barley and black malt). I decided to make an RIS for my birthday and was shooting for an ABV of about 8.5-9%. I kept the 1.5 lbs of dark malt (although I added a third dark malt to the combination) and just upped the base malt to get the added gravity. The RIS ended up very nice and was plenty roasted. If I had simply scaled up, it would have been WAY too roasted.

 

[motorneuron]

I have to respectfully disagree with the prior responses on this one. The base malt is there primarily to add sugars (both fermentable and nonfermentable) not flavors. The roast barley and any other specialty grains are there primarily to add flavor. Using your example of going from 4% to 6%, you are going to be upping your specialty grains by 50%. If you do this and keep the volume the same, you are going to increase the flavor contributions from these grains considerably. If you are using flaked barley (or another similar flaked grain), that is to add body. You don't need to increase this when you scale up.

I would alter my recipe by adding more base grains and not changing specialties malts. I am not in front of my computer that has my Beersmith, so my numbers won't be exact, but here is an example from my recipes. I make a dry stout that is about 4.8% ABV and has 1.5 lbs of dark grains (combination of roasted barley and black malt). I decided to make an RIS for my birthday and was shooting for an ABV of about 8.5-9%. I kept the 1.5 lbs of dark malt (although I added a third dark malt to the combination) and just upped the base malt to get the added gravity. The RIS ended up very nice and was plenty roasted. If I had simply scaled up, it would have been WAY too roasted.

I think you're also right here. I guess I don't think there is really a general rule. An RIS that has double the OG of a dry stout needs more dark grain, but not double the dark grain. And as a general rule, specialty malts should probably scale less than base malts; that's especially true for the dark ones. Going from 4% to 6% probably means scaling the base malt more than the specialty grain. But on the other hand, I don't think just upping everything by 50% will produce a bad beer. It just might be more intense in other respects than you want. Depends on what you're going for.

 

[cbarnett5]

Thank you for the information, I too plan to boost the ABV in my RIS. My first one came out great, but the ABV was only 6%. I am looking at getting 9% on my next one, but want the same complexity in the taste. My only problem is I will over fill my mash tun.