Sugar to increase Alcohol?

[kentmark]

So on the logic that during fermentation the sugar turns into alcohol, could you add more sugar to a kit than the instructions recommend, thus increasing OG and sugar content, so that there is more sugar to turn to more alcohol?

Cheers :

 

[bobsbeer]

Yes to a point. All yeast have a maximum alcohol tolerance. Check your yeast maximum or you may end up with a sweet brew.

 

[graysalchemy]

Sugar is a flavour dilutent. Beer gets some of its flavour and its body and mouth feel from the unfermentable sugars, so if you increase the fermentables you upset this balance and you will end up with a stronger beer but with less body mouth feel and flavour. Kits are always better if you use either a kit enhancer or Dry malt extract (spraymalt) as they are made from malt and not sugar.

I would use DME instead of any sugar and increase the amount if you so desire but don't over do it as you could end up with a sweet beer.

 

[Aleman]

So on the logic that during fermentation the sugar turns into alcohol, could you add more sugar to a kit than the instructions recommend, thus increasing OG and sugar content, so that there is more sugar to turn to more alcohol?

Cheers :

Yes you can do this and it will work . . . most beer yeasts will quite happily tolerate 15% alcohol.

Of course it will taste like **** . . . but you'll get pissed on it

WTF happened to brewing quality beer? Surely if you want a cheap buzz you can buy a 3L bottle of 7.8% white cider for under a fiver

 

[Mark1964]

Don't think It's about quality any more just a cheap way of getting hammered. Were still happy brewing nice tasting drinkable ale

 

[Andyhull]

I started Home brewing as for me it is about primarily getting a quality great tasting drink and also to a lesser extent cost!

I like drinking lager (Stella primarily) but my taste has over the years changed to the real ales.
I don't just want to get hammered, but to be honest if im having a few, 4 to 6 beers at 4% i know i have had them.
I Don't understand the need to try and get as high an alcohol level as possible? :wha:

 

[alanywiseman.]

Your other option is to brew it short, so instead of brewing 23L using 1kg of sugar/DME brew 18-20L. This will make a stronger beer (by about 1% ABV) but will also give it a bit more body as well.

 

[Easy Peasie]

[/quote]
Yes you can do this and it will work . . . most beer yeasts will quite happily tolerate 15% alcohol.

Of course it will taste like **** . . . but you'll get pissed on it

WTF happened to brewing quality beer? Surely if you want a cheap buzz you can buy a 3L bottle of 7.8% white cider for under a fiver[/quote]

LOVE IT :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[kentmark]

LOL @ some of the replies!

Not trying to get the max ABV I can, but I've just got a batch finished that's just under 3%. Would prefer a little more punch than that, but something in the 4%'s would be cool.

At the moment for me home-brewing is a bit of fun, but also a way of making some cheap beer as pennies are rather tight at the moment. Yes I do enjoy a higher quality ale but am having to find a happy compromise of cost against quality at the moment.

But thanks for all the replies nonetheless!

 

[johnnyboy1965]

LOL @ some of the replies!

Not trying to get the max ABV I can, but I've just got a batch finished that's just under 3%. Would prefer a little more punch than that, but something in the 4%'s would be cool.

At the moment for me home-brewing is a bit of fun, but also a way of making some cheap beer as pennies are rather tight at the moment. Yes I do enjoy a higher quality ale but am having to find a happy compromise of cost against quality at the moment.

But thanks for all the replies nonetheless!

The answer to your original question is...yes the more sugar you add the stonger your brew will be...but at the loss of flavour. If you have brewed a kit beer and it has finished at 3%, thenyou have probably got your liquor calculations wrong or your yeast hasnt done its job. As to fixing the problem...I wouldnt bother, chalk it down to experience and drink another couple of brews

 

[craigevo]

ADDING simple sugar will, assuming healthy and sufficient yeast are pitched, give your beer more alcohol. I dont see why you would loose any body or flavour since you still have the same quantity of malt. Of course just adding alcohol will change the taste. but I wouldnt say you LOOSE any flavour as such.

REPLACING some malt with sugar is a different matter of course ! and then you would loose body and malt flavour.

I have heard that if you throw in a 'lot' of sugar at the start of the ferment, the yeast will get lazy since they will go straight for the simple sugar, and once thats finished, they give up and cant be bothered with the complex sugar from the malt. Thus you get incomplete fermentation and higher FG. I dont know if this is true or not, but I do believe from experience that if you throw in some sugar at the end of fermentation then you wont have this problem.

I am assuming sane levels of alcohol well within the yeasts acceptable range ! Not rocket fuel.

 

[graysalchemy]

ADDING simple sugar will, assuming healthy and sufficient yeast are pitched, give your beer more alcohol. I dont see why you would loose any body or flavour since you still have the same quantity of malt. Of course just adding alcohol will change the taste. but I wouldnt say you LOOSE any flavour as such.

Kits which require sugar Don't have enough malt in them in the first place and you will always get a beer with less flavour and body. Adding more sugar just makes the problem worse. Also as alcohol increases the perception of flavour changes. Making a beer is about getting a balance between all the flavours. Household sugar also makes the yeast ferment in a different way so you will also get flavour changes through that. Yeast doesn't just make the alcohol 70% of a beers flavour profile comes from yeast so if you change the way it ferments then it will have an effect on flavour, cidery taste is a noticeable flavour shift due to using to much sugar

If you are making a high gravity beer from scratch then using some sugar is beneficial as to much malt would leave to much un fermentables making the beer sweet. Either that or you mash at a lower temp so that you get less unfermentable.

 

[alanywiseman.]

ADDING simple sugar will, assuming healthy and sufficient yeast are pitched, give your beer more alcohol. I dont see why you would loose any body or flavour since you still have the same quantity of malt. Of course just adding alcohol will change the taste. but I wouldnt say you LOOSE any flavour as such.

+ 1 for what Graysalchemy says.

I have brewed an number of one can kits and sugar does affect the body and flavour of the beer. When I have used DME the beer has had better body and definetly better taste when compared to 1kg of sugar. The ones i have brewed with sugar have seemed watery.