controlling the alcohol

[bazooka]

aside from adding a lot of corn sugar, how can you "boost" the alcohol content of your homebrew? I've read that adding a lot of corn sugar will make the beer taste cider like. I'm looking to brew an ale from a malt extract kit, and would like the alcohol content to be aprox. 5-7%. Should I go ahead and add the corn sugar, or is this really a bad way of making homebrew???

[Tweek]

add more extract

[b3s]

higher original gravity. yeast with higher attenuation. iow, add more consumable sugars for the yeast (malt) and use a yeast that produces more alcohol.

in general i try to keep in the 70-80% attenuation range and in the 65-85 OG range. my stout is about 7% alcohol and my IPA is about 8.5% alcohol.

[ray m]

add more extract

[Fast_Eddy]

You might want to add some more hops to balance out the additional extract.

[bazooka]

thanks for the tips. When adding more extract, does it matter if its dry or in liquid form? My local brew shop sells packets of dry malt extract, as well as cans of liquid.

[brewmonkey]

It does not matter if it is DME or liquid.

[YamahaXS]

pound for pound, DME is a little more potent than liquid.

for a 5-7 beer, look to use about 8 pounds of DME total. or 9 pounds of liquid. thats my guess... i am sure there are tables out there that will tell you for sure.

[b3s]

one pound per gallon of dme on average will yield a gravity of 45. one pound per gallon of lme will yield 33-35 on average.

[Blaze]

My local brew supplierAmerican BrewMaster (http://www.AmericanBrewMaster.com) says:
3.3 lbs of Liquid Malt Extract = 44 oz. (2.75 lbs) of Dry Malt Extract

I also like strong beer and used 2 lbs of brown sugar in a batch, which was ~35% of the fermentable sugars. I thought it was fine, but I'm a newby; my local beer club said to lose the sugar entirely and increase the extract.

As I understand it, the goal is to have a high original gravity. BUT, the more fermentation, the lower the final gravity will be...which means that more sugar was converted to alcohol. So, it is important to use the correct yeast. I understand (hearsay) that Nottingham will ferment the wort down quite low, thereby increasing the potency.

Also, if your gravity is too high (high is considered over 1.070, I think) for the yeast, it can pickle itself and will stop fermenting prematurely. Some yeasts are made for high gravity beers: champagne yeast comes to mind and some yeast even have "strong" in their name.

[b3s]

yeah, there are yeasts for higher gravity, but if you want to use a particular yeast for the flavor (especially ales), you might want to consider tossing yeast hulls in when the fermentation gets stuck. a trick tweek gave me.

[BucksBrew]

b3s, What are yeast hulls?

My yeast is in a slap pack, pitchable tube, or powder in a packet.

[b3s]

yeast hulls are basically the empty yeast bodies...in other words, yeast without the yeast.

usually your brewshop will have them over by the grains.

basically, you're just giving the yeast a new body since a higher alcohol content beer killed the old body. the yeast in the trub moves into the hulls (kinda like a snail) and re-opens for business.

[BucksBrew]

Thanks!

[MmmBeer]

Here's another (weird) way to increase the alcohol content. Crush 5-6 pills of Beano and add it to your primary. This will decrease the carbs in your beer by a lot (over 50% usually) decrease the calories and add alcohol content. What the Beano does is convert the unfermentable carbs into sugars. This process may take a little away from the body of the beer, but I've tried a beer someone brewed this way and it tasted good. Also a good way to cut carbs out of your beer if you are on one of those low-carb diets.

[Fast_Eddy]

Yeah they just tested and confirmed this in BYO.