My second brew..

[ucwmike]

Hi there. My brother and I have just wondered into the whole homebrewing thing. We bought a kit online. Anywho the first beers came out alright, but just as normal store bought beer, it didn't get me buzzed even.( Im a huge guy 6'2 340 pounds, with a russian background, so you can immagine we have a alcohol tolarance) Now im not looking to get drunk of my ass, i just need to get buzzed after a hard days work every now and then lol.

Is there a way of increasing alcohol content of the beers? The current batch we're making, we added like 1/4 bag of suger into the pot while boiling, but the gravity reading or whatever its called still says posible 4% alcohol. Any ideas or solutions?

 

[EvilTOJ]

Give us your recipe or what kit it was you bought and we should be able to figure out the suggested ABV. Was the sugar you added table sugar or corn sugar? Regular table sugar gives the beer a cidery taste.

 

[ucwmike]

Its Brewers Best Kit. The recipie is German Oktoberfest.

6.6 lbs plain light malt extract
8 oz crushed crystal malt 60L
4 oz crushed crystal malt 20L
1 oz Willamette Hops (Bittering)
1 oz Hallertau Hops (finishing)
5 oz priming sugar
beer yeast
(also dont forget the 1/4 bag of table suger we threw in)

thats it.

also i should mention the recipe says the starting gravity would be 1.052-1.055...ours was 1.03. What does this mean? and what effect will this have on our beer?

 

[artfldodger]

when you took the reading did you mix the wort / top off water together well? If not most of wort just sinks to the bottom and you dont get an accurate sample. It happened to me once when I just poured the top off water in and took the hydro reading, i got 1.03. Even though it should have been 1.07, and it tastes like a 6-7% beer.

and for the future, you should use corn suger instead of table suger if you want to bump up the ABV.

 

[ucwmike]

ok ill remember that. We took a reading and then mixed it. But im sure the beers are ganna come out good. That thing is bubbling like a swamp lol. The airlock is popping at a rate of about 1 pop each second!

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Don't forget to claibrate for temp. when taking a hydometer reading. A better way than adding sugar is to add more extract.