Double Sugar

[azezal]

I just wondered what would happen, if instead of adding 1kg of sugar to a 5 gallon fermentation container I added 2kg?

Would this make the beer stronger, or would the yeast just run out and the beer would be sugary swee?

 

[Parva]

Aha, now I'm getting the picture. :) Yes, you would get a MUCH stronger brew! But, and here's the rub, you lose all the qualities of the brew itself and end up making something that blows your brains out but tastes like s!?t. If you want to up the alcohol then you have to up the ingredients to match, you can't just chuck more sugar at it and expect it to taste the same but be a stronger ABV.

If you were making a Geordie Bitter kit (£7.99 from Wilkinsons) and wanted to up the alcohol without turning it into paint-stripper then you should buy two kits, use both and double the sugar but still make 40 pints and not 80. It'll still taste like Geordie (pretty poor compared to AG) but it'll be very strong and it will still taste of beer and not paint-thinners.

If you just want alcohol then ferment a bag of sugar with some yeast and drink that. If you want palletable beer then everything you do has to matched with equal quantities.

 

[azezal]

I understand thanks. I will stick with the 1 Kg for now probably.

If I did want to use two beer kits, and 2kg of sugar, should I also use double the yeast? or just 1?

 

[Parva]

Yes, you would have to add both packets of yeast as you would be doubling the sugar content (or even going somewhere between 50% - 100% more than for one kit depending how strong you wanted it). Alternatively buy one kit but instead of brewing 40 pints knock it down to 30 pints and up the sugar slightly. Then there's dried malt extract and stuff you can add too. Many ways to skin a cat. :)

 

[Woodside]

Many years ago (when I was still at school!), I bought a Boots bitter kit to make my own homebrew. My Dad told me that if I added more sugar, it would make it stronger. I added so much sugar that it couldn't ferment any more. The resulting brew (as I remember) was thin, insipid and deeply unpleasant, perhaps like a bottle of dry sherry that had been left in a hot, sunny window for a number of years. It was also outrageously alcoholic, and (needless to say) I pretended that it was a delicious beverage for perhaps 2 pints or so, after which I tipped it all away.

 

[derbyowl]

Many years ago (when I was still at school!), I bought a Boots bitter kit to make my own homebrew. My Dad told me that if I added more sugar, it would make it stronger. I added so much sugar that it couldn't ferment any more. The resulting brew (as I remember) was thin, insipid and deeply unpleasant, perhaps like a bottle of dry sherry that had been left in a hot, sunny window for a number of years. It was also outrageously alcoholic, and (needless to say) I pretended that it was a delicious beverage for perhaps 2 pints or so, after which I tipped it all away.

I have benn there , done that , and drunkardly spilt beer down the t shirt.



except it was not my hombrew but my mates which was ludicroulsy strong but tasted awful. But the best was some pear wine that his mum had made and we drank it because we were skint. Paint stipper R US :sick: