how do i get a stronger ale ?

[chris+spain]

can anyone tell me how to make my ale a bit stronger without any drastic changes to the recipe and /or reducing the amount of water, its a half mash by the way.
“PARTIAL MASH” BREW. 25 LITERS
Ingredients -
2 cans of amber malt extract. (total 3kg)
dried ale yeast (safale).
Brown sugar. -250g
-Irish moss. (5 gm for 25 litres)
- Fuggles - Add 40g of hops 5min into the boil , 30g at 20min into the boil.
-East kent goldings - 40g 15 min before end of boil.
- Crystal malt ( 250g )
-Pale malt ( 250g )
4. Place 5 - 10 liters of cold tap water in the MASH TUN ( pot!! ) and place the full grain bag into the cold water , now bring water to the boil then drop heat to simmer for 15 mins.While this is simmering use the 15 mins to prepare the boiling pot- ie: 2/3 full of water,bring to the boil and then take off the heat and add the 2 tins of extract whilst stirring continuously to avoid burning.
5. After the 15 mins is up remove grain bag and place it in a large sieve over the BoilingPot and sparge with 1 – 2 liters of just boiled water, now do the same again with the contents of the mash tun ( to aid in producing a clearer wort ? ) ---wort first then hot water – I think !?
6. Place boiling pot back on the heat and bring to a gentle rolling boil and then add the adjuncts ( sugar )
AT THIS POINT SET TIMER FOR 60 MINS
Now I add the bittering hops – 5 and then 20 mins into boil.
At 45mins into the boil I add the flavoring hops and also the Irish moss.
To sum up I got a really good clear ale fermentation was right noisy for 5 days then died off on day 6- second fermenter ect bottles blah blah blah- I really love this beer ( 3.8 abv ) but like I said I want it a tad stronger with no changes – somebody please help
Cheers …..Chris in sunny Spain

 

[markp]

Hi there,

To up the strength, you need more fermentables in there.
Increase the amount of malt extract (dry or liquid) that a recipe calls for.
Or, you could simply add more sugar but you will get a thinner beer.

ATB

 

[corby_brewer]

As far as im aware Chris, the only way you are going to make you brew stronger is either by adding some more femenatables to the brew or by reducing the amount of water you use. But i might be wrong, sop please do not take my word for it.

 

[unclepumble]

As above, More malt extract or sugar to the given amount of water, or use less water.

UP

 

[Aleman]

can anyone tell me how to make my ale a bit stronger without any drastic changes to the recipe and /or reducing the amount of water, its a half mash by the way.
“PARTIAL MASH” BREW. 25 LITERS
Ingredients -
2 cans of amber malt extract. (total 3kg)

- Crystal malt ( 250g )
-Pale malt ( 250g )

4. Place 5 - 10 liters of cold tap water in the MASH TUN ( pot!! ) and place the full grain bag into the cold water , now bring water to the boil then drop heat to simmer for 15 mins.

OK First off to increase the strength of the beer you need to increase the fermentables (or reduce the volume but you have said you don't want to do that) As it is a partial mash it is easy to increase the pale malt to 1Kg (if you have the capacity) which will give you a few extra gravity points . . . or you could add an extra 250/200g of malt extract. . . . If you increase the fermentables by 10% then you should increase the hops (bittering) by 10% as well.

Your partial mash method is less than ideal however, as you are not 'mashing' the pale malt and it is never best practice to boil the grain which will lead to extraction of tannins and polyphenols . . . you may be getting away with it as you are using a small amount of grain. A Best Practice method would be.

Put Pale malt and Crystal malt into a pot. . . . add 1.25L of water at 65C, and stir . . . put the lot in a warm oven (60-70C) for 45 minutes . . . remove and transfer to a sieve over your boiling pot . . . return the liquid that drains from the grain a couple of times . . . then rinse with a couple of litres of water at 80C. . . . Dissolve the malt extract in the sweet wort and top up to your boil volume . . . . Add hops . . . start to boil for 60 minutes . . . halfway through remove some of the wort dissolve the sugar and return it all to the boil pot.

 

[chris+spain]

good info ,many thanks guys. I think i have to investigate further the mashing thing....once again thanks all.