How do I increase/decrease the alchol content in homemade beer?!


Question: The 2 most common ways for increasing ABV are either adding more LME/DME (which will add extra body and/or flavor) or adding extra Dextrose (corn sugar). I'm not sure the proportions for Malt, but in a 5 gallon batch, 1 pound of Dextrose added to your primary will give you an approx. 1% increase.
Follow your recipe as normal, and use the normal yeast your recipe calls for, but just add an extra pound of dextrose. Use your hydrometer to check your original SG, and then you will be able to calculate you FG. If the yeast that the recipe calls for is not high alcohol tolerant, then once primary fermentation has finished, you'll want to pitch something like Red Star Champagne.
NOTE: If you are looking for a high gravity 'big beer', do not try adding a few pounds of sugar to a light ale recipe. The alcohol will overpower the flavor and you will get a horrible finished product. Try starting with a high gravity recipe first, something like a Wee Heavy or a Barleywine.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com and http://www.northernbrewer.com both have some very good high gravity recipe kits.


Answers: The 2 most common ways for increasing ABV are either adding more LME/DME (which will add extra body and/or flavor) or adding extra Dextrose (corn sugar). I'm not sure the proportions for Malt, but in a 5 gallon batch, 1 pound of Dextrose added to your primary will give you an approx. 1% increase.
Follow your recipe as normal, and use the normal yeast your recipe calls for, but just add an extra pound of dextrose. Use your hydrometer to check your original SG, and then you will be able to calculate you FG. If the yeast that the recipe calls for is not high alcohol tolerant, then once primary fermentation has finished, you'll want to pitch something like Red Star Champagne.
NOTE: If you are looking for a high gravity 'big beer', do not try adding a few pounds of sugar to a light ale recipe. The alcohol will overpower the flavor and you will get a horrible finished product. Try starting with a high gravity recipe first, something like a Wee Heavy or a Barleywine.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com and http://www.northernbrewer.com both have some very good high gravity recipe kits.

Add/decrease the amount of sugar in the recipe.

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Change the gravity

There are two methods. You can change the yeast; different strains give more or less alcohol. Alternatively, you can add or subtract sugars. Besides malt extracts or malted grains, you can use corn or corn sugar (yech), honey, molasses, or cane sugar (even worse than corn sugar, with the exception of small amounts of brown sugar).





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