LIGHT DRY MALT & ALCOHOL CONTENT OF BEER

[mancer62]

I just got my order in today from the home brew shop. They have sent me coopers light dry malt instead of the dark dry malt I had asked for. Will this prove a problem? I am planning to use it to put into my coopers irish stout or coopers english bitter. The light malt box says if mixed with coopers mexican cerveza will produce a beer with an alcohol content of 3.2%. Personally I would like my stouts to be a bithigher in alcohol than this and am open to suggestions.

(a) To Make: 1 x Coopers Irish Stout & 1 x Coopers English Bitter.
Ingredient: I have 2 x 1kg bags of brewing sugar
1kg coopers light dry malt
1 450g tin Dark treacle

I would like beer and stout to be little stronger and feel I would like to experiment a little combining these ingredients any suggestions as to what to add ? Amounts to both when Brewing and Priming and what kind of final % alcohol I could expect? :

 

[PD]

I've made Coopers Stout and Bitter in the past and both brews came out around 4.5% abv with just the kit ingredients and the 1kg of sugar changed to a mix of half kg beer enhancer and half kg of spray malt.
Dark or light spray malt will have no noticeable diff abpart from a slight lightening of the colour.
However the best way for you to keep a check on the alcohol is to use a hydrometer. Take a Starting gravity reading when all mixed up and before yeast added and then a Final Gravity reading when the yeasts have finished doing their thing. and your about ready to bottle.
I never added treacle to my brews so that will give you a slightly higher alcohol %

 

[mancer62]

I do use hydrometer readings the last beer I made in barrel at moment was Coopers Dark Ale OG 1038 FG 1014 = 3.2% I'm not looking for a super strength beer but one that's probably between 4.5% and 5.5%.
I was just wondering (out of curiosity) with these ingredients I have if I could mix match them a little and if so what would be the recommended amounts etc to both use when making the brew and when priming. :