↑ ABV: How to increase the alcohol content of home brew beer

How can I increase the alcohol content of my beer (abv)?

Did you ever see the movie Men in Black?

It featured the wonderful actor Vincent D'Onofrio as an angry alien that loved sugar.

And lots of it.

& that's basically the answer to how to increase the alcohol content of your beer.

You add sugar.

And lots of it - to a point though. 

Adding sucrose can be a very easy thing to do but the reality is that it's quite a nuanced thing.

Like baking a cake, or reading a Dune novel, straying from the recipe can radically change the body and taste of the cake, and doing that with sugar can produce some changes to your beer that you might not want.

But like all things in life, there are tolerable variances.

In the beer realm, the phrase 'Alcohol By Volume' is used to measure alcohol content. As in that is, what is the percentage of 'alcohol by volume' of the total beer.

Commonly shortened to ABV, the question becomes how do I raise the ABV of my beer by adding sugars?

What can I add to my beer kit to get a higher ABV?

Here's a basic ingredient list:

• Hopped Malt Extract (HME)
• Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
• Dry Malt Extract (DME)
• Table sugar
• Corn sugar (dextrose)
• Honey
• Brown sugar

Using extra DME  or LME for increased ABV

Some brewers will use extra dry malt extract as their sugar source which the yeast ferments.

As a rough guide, an extra pound or 1/2 kg of DME or LME on top of your recipe requirements will add an extra half percent to your beer. Doubling that will give you an extra whole percent.

Roughly...

Using a malt extract will more than increase the overall body of the beer, produce a higher finishing gravity or offer a more malty finish.  You might also experience a reduction in hop bitterness.

Adding extra sugars to increase ABV

Using additional sugars such as corn sugar (dextrose), table sugar, and brown sugar will all help to boost and increase the beer's ABV.

These sugars do tend to make a beer taste drier and thin out the body and mouthfeel of the beer.

You may also be able to taste more bitterness in any added hops.

Maple syrup, golden syrup and lollies like jelly beans can also be used but they will all influence the taste of your beer.

Of course, if you've ever tried an 8 or 9 percent commercial beer such as King Fisher or Elephant, you may have noted how sweet most of those beers are.

Using these sugars may also lighten the color of your beer.

Using honey to increase the ABV of your beer

Honey is a fine product to use to increase your alcohol content because it is very fermentable and yeasts just love feeding on it.

It will also add a hint of flavor and complexity to the beer. The volume needed is a fair bit - 1 pound of honey will give about a 0.7 percent increase.

It's my personal experience that honey can really dry out the taste of a beer so I would consider using honey more for flavor effect.

Adding too many 'fermentables' - too much sugar will hurt your beer

It's a widely recommended practice that no more than 1/3 of your beer's ABV level should be a result of non-malt adjuncts or fermentable sugars. That is to say, don't oversaturate your beer with extra sugars!

For example, if you are making a 6 percent ABV beer, you shouldn't add products that will contribute 2 percent of that total. 

If you are bumping up the additionals, you might also wish to boost up the other elements of your recipe to help balance the beer and keep it more like your intended brew.

Too much sugar puts pressure on the yeast 

A big caution is that the more sugar you put in, the more pressure you place on the yeast.

The more alcohol that is produced, the slower the rate at which fermentation occurs. You may also feel your beer tastes somewhat sweater. But that could be in your head, I have no idea what goes on in there.

A keen player will consider adding more yeast nutrients to the wort which may give the original yeast a new lease of life and extend fermentation.

Too much alcohol may actually end up killing off the yeast. Some yeasts do handle the presence of alcohol better than others so shop around for those advertised as being tough.

You could also add a second round of yeast to your brew if you were keen. You might want to add the kind of yeast that has a higher alcohol tolerance but the standard Safale yeast will do the trick.

In terms of your beer preparation before you begin primary fermentation, exposing your wort to an appropriate amount of oxygen will help - make sure everything gets a good stir.

If you are over-saturating your wort with sugar, you might also want to boost the fermentation rate with a yeast energizer.

Temperature regulation will come into play as well

So, what you've got to think about to raise the alcohol content is that there are a lot of variables that can help you but at the same time, they may also hinder your beer.

If we were to put our 'Science Officer' hat on we would suggest you only make one change at a time from your normal routine and measure your results and make a judgment accordingly.

For example - you've made your standard ale brew often enough and you know from using your hydrometer that the alcohol content is usually say 4.5 ABV.

You may wish to add an extra half KG of DME to your brew and see if that raises the ABV to 5 ABV.

If that's the case, you win!

Knowing that method works, you could continually make changes in increments to get that ABV to 5.5 or even higher.

Just remember, the more sugars you put in, the great the chance of hindering the yeast, at which point you would need to consider yeast-based modifications to your recipe and practices.

In summary, to increase the alcohol or ABV of your beer you can consider:

• Adding extra DME, sugar, or produce like honey and maple syrup.
• Adding extra yeast to your initial pitch.
• Adding extra yeast and yeast↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ nutrients late in the usual fermentation process. 
• Using a yeast that can handle a high alcohol content.
• Make sure the wort gets invigorated with oxygen before primary fermentation.
• Keep good temperature control, don't allow wild fluctuations.
• Consider adding a yeast nutrient to help the yeast reach its full potential.
• Aerate the wort just prior to pitching.

Most importantly, remember that brewing is an art and a science, and one should brew beer for love of beer and not to get consistently hammered on 8 per cent haymakers...

What's the opposite of sugar? 

Salt!

 And there's a beer style called a Gose that uses it and shows that salt can be used to counter bitterness in your beer! It might be something for you to experiment with!

Image credit to Martin Garrido via Creative Commons Licence. We don't know if Martin likes the idea of a Mortal Engines movie but we sure do!

1 comment abv, alcohol, fermentables, honey, maple syrup, sugar

How to work out the alcohol ABV of your home brew beer

How to use a hydrometer correctly to determine the alcohol content of your beer or wine

A trick of the home brewer's craft is to keep a hydrometer handy. This tool will help any beer brewer to make great beer.

What is a hydrometer?

At its most basic scientific purpose, a hydrometer is an instrument that measures the specific gravity of liquids, that is to say, it measures the ratio of the density of the liquid to the density of water.

Did you get that?

Why would a home brewer use a hydrometer?

A home brewer uses the hydrometer to monitor the fermentation progress and measure the alcohol content of his produce.

Hydrometers can measure specific gravity, potential alcohol and the approximate sugar per litre of content.

So the big question then, how does one use a hydrometer?

If you float the hydrometer in a test tube of water you will find it gives you a gravity reading of 1.000. This makes sense as there is no water displacement occurring.

Not let's assume we are at the point where you have prepared your beer wort. It's time to add the hydrometer to the beer wort in a test tube. Not only is there water in the wort but other mixed in ingredients including sugar, thus meaning some displacement can occur.

Spin the hydrometer around in the tube - this will dislodge any bubbles that are helping to float the hydrometer above what should be the actual reading. 

Take note of the reading which is where the hydrometer crosses the water / air line and write it down as you will need it for your equations later on. It's called the starting or original gravity. 

Let the brew ferment.

When you think fermentation is complete, take a reading. Then wait 24 hours and take a second reading.

If they are the same, you have your final gravity measurement.

A handy rule of thumb to beer in mind is when the final gravity is approximately a quarter of the starting gravity you’re done with fermentation. 

Let your beer 'chill out' in the drum a bit longer. While the bubbles may have stopped, chemical reactions are still occurring and they will help make your beer taste even better.

How to work out the alcohol content of your beer using the hydrometer's specific and final gravity readings

It's a crude or rough measurement but the calculation / to use equation is simple:

(Starting Reading minus Final Reading ) x 131 = alcohol by volume (ABV)

Given that hydrometers are calibrated to be used at specific temperatures one needs to use the taken readings a guide rather than a wholly accurate value.

For example, if your hydrometer is calibrated to be used in an environment of 15 degrees centigrade but it's warmed to 20 degrees, there's a chance your readings will be slightly out.

To be frank, for the average home brewer, it hardly matters if your 5 percent beer is actually 4.8 per cent!

There's quite a bit of science behind how the units are calibrated but provided your readings are semi accurate, you shouldn't need to worry about it too much!

A single caution though. You shouldn't feel the need to take readings all day every day as you wait for fermentation to finish. Exposing your beer to the atmosphere does raise the possibility of a contaminant getting in so beer that in mind.

If you want to increase the ABV of your beer, add more sugars.

Using Brix and a refractometer to determine alcohol content by measuring sugar

If you do not have a hydrometer, there's an alternative to work it out. Using the Brix method one measures the sugar content of an aqueous solution, in this case, your beer.

Using your refractometer, take a drop of your beer and get the measurement. If you multiply that by 4 - this will give you the specific gravity which you can then use with the normal calculations.

If you're keen on getting a high ABV, check out these tricks to increase the alcohol content of your beer.

Order a hydrometer from Amazon now!

Image credit to Daniel Spiess via Creative Commons Licence

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↠ Using honey in beer brewing (if you want to increase your ABV)

How to use honey in your beer brewing

Using honey to make beer is a trick of the trade that’s as old as hills but is still just as awesome an idea today as it was when the hills where made.

Adding bee honey to your homebrew efforts is a splendid way to add interesting aromas and flavours to your beer. 

Let’s clarify that adding honey to your beer doesn’t make it mead.

Mead is made wholly from honey whereas, for our purposes, we are simply adding honey to the beer to help impart flavour. Doing this results in a drop known as a braggot, which is arguably a kind of mead. 

It’s also an interesting way to increase the alcohol content (ABV) of your beer.

For the sakes of keeping things simple, the casual or novice brewer will probably simply want to use honey of the kind from a supermarket. The pros might want to use some wild honey sourced from a local supplier or bee specialist however it’s not without risk in terms of bacteria in wild honey having a wrestling match with the yeast in the beer wort as it ferments. 

There are also health risks about using honey, as for example in New Zealand honey can have Tutin contamination, which causes toxicity in honey. So make sure your honey supplier knows what they are doing.

We suggest you stick with ordinary honey that you would be happy to feed your children. 

So when do I add honey to my beer?

In the most basic sense, to add honey to your beer, simply add it when you are preparing your beer kit. Once you’ve added in the malt extract, hops, DME or dextrose etc, this is the time to add your honey.

You may want to soften the honey by placing the jar in some warm water (don’t boil it!). This way it will pour easily into your fermenter.

If you are doing a boil, I've seen punters suggest to add the honey as your wort cools & when it's 160 Fahrenheit or below is a good time to do it. This may help retain more honey flavor in your beer.

You’re probably now asking how much honey do you add to your brew?

I’ve seen recommendations that suggest anywhere from 2 to 10 per cent of your total wort can be honey. I’ve also read it expressed in that you can add up to 50% of your total fermentable sugars like honey. 

Either way, there’s room for you to experiment.

Take note that adding too much honey to your brew may increase fermentation time (but as a patient brewer, this should be no problem for you!).  

Also, the more honey you add, the more akin to mead your beer may taste. 

What kind of honey to use? 

We said anything from the supermarket, just bear in mind that different honey will have different characteristics but that a 'maltier' style honey will assist with ensuring a honey flavor taste for your brew.

A brewer, who actually knows what they are doing have written that you might want to consider adding an increased amount of bittering hops to somewhat counter the sharper, more sweet flavour that could result if you use a lot of honey.

Your beer may also have a somewhat drier mouthfeel.

Can I use honey to carbonate my beer?

Honey sure can be used to bottle condition and carbonate beer. Don't add too much or you may end up with too much secondary fermentation and get a gusher beer. 

Image credit to Jason Riedy via Creative Commons Licence

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Brewing with two malt kits

Brewing beer with two malt extract kits 

As a beer kit brewer - I've often seen brewing forums chatter about brewing with two cans of malt rather than the traditional one can with added sugars such as dextrose.

I thought it was time to do an experiment and see for myself if using solely two kits for a beer would translate into a good tasting beer.

Given two kits can effectively double the cost of your brew, I grabbed two cans of the cheapest kits I could find at the supermarket which just happened to be Cooper's Stout. Having made reasonable brews with Coopers DIY Kits in the past, I was confident I'd be able to make a drinkable beer!

So how did this experiment go down?

One makes the double kit beer wort in the traditional one kit way except the recipe is effectively doubled.

This means I am adding double the usual amount of malt. This means there's going to be a lot of fermentable molecules in the wort, at a higher ratio than normal (standard 1 KG plus roughly 700 grams more).

Given there is hops oil in each can, I am also doubling the hops count of the batch - this will likely mean that the bitterness of the beer will double (well, let's see how that pans out).

What is also happening is that we are not adding any extra sucrose or dextrose (I usually use a beer enhancer to assist with better taste and good mouth feel). I think that is going to have quite an effect on the beer as I noted above that there will be a vastly higher ratio of malt to water than my usual beer kit brews.

Given this, I suspect the Final Gravity will be higher than the norm and I imagine the ABV may be in the range of 5 - 6 percent though that may be pushing it. Even if it's not that high, I'll get a nice sweet brew.

I am also adding double the yeast as having two kits means I've got two sachets. I think I could have got away with just using one packet but figured let's roll the dice and see what happens. It's possible the extra 700 grams of malt could give the yeast some trouble so some extra will probably help.

I added both packets to a glass of warm water so that it was 'activated' before it when into the wort. I'm not hugely convinced this actually makes a massive difference but I've read that it helps where there's a lot of sugars (malt) in the wort.

The Dark Knight watches over the yeast

I prepared the brew after cleaning and sanitizing the fermenter drum and left it overnight in the kitchen where it was warm.

Here's my trick for getting all the malt out of a can without making too much mess:



So how did this experiment work out?

On return from work that evening (so roughly 36 hours) I observed that fermentation had been going really well. This is probably due to having used two yeast sachets as I have never seen this much bubble activity before:



Those dark brown spots you can see are actually yeast clumps that got caught in the foam after fermentation went into hyperdrive (attack of the Krausen!). I grabbed a clean spoon and gently stirred them back into the wort. I then closed the lid back up nice and tight and carried the drum up to the shed where I wrapped it up in a pile of old towels.

It's just settling into spring here so it will not be too cold in the shed. I'll leave it there for a week at least to let the fermentation fully complete. If I'm really patient, I'll leave the brew to settle a bit longer than that.

Let's see how we go.


-

And we're back!

It's been just under two weeks since we pitched the yeast into the wort.

I have bottled the beer. A test taste at the time revealed it has quite a strong flavor and it smelt really 'heavy'. It also had a very 'Coopers' taste to it. It appeared to be a nice dark brown color.

Let's wait another couple of weeks before we do a taste test once the bottles have carbonated and conditioned.

-

Time for a drink?

Spring has kicked in quite nicely so there should have been a fairly even brewing / conditioning temperature (other than night and day changes).

The verdict:

This is a 'fair beer' and with another two weeks of conditioning, it will be a very enjoyable beer.

It's malty as fuck. That should really be no surprise eh?

Having drunk the whole glass fairly quickly, I get the impression the beer has an ABV higher than the brews I usually make (around 4 per cent ABV) so I would suspect it's over 5 but not close to 6. Yes, yes, I should have done some gravity readings...

This double malt kit brew would have benefitted definitely from some additional hops such as Goldings or Fuggles. This mostly is because Coopers is simply a 'stock standard' beer kit.

Given this is the first Cooper's stout I've brewed, I'm fairly happy with how the beer has turned out.

The beer had little head as I suspect I slightly under sugared the batch for the secondary carbonation.

In terms of economy, the two kits cost about 35 bucks (NZ price) whereas a usually single can and enhancer combo would cost around 27 - so the question is whether the extra 8 bucks makes enough of a difference to the brew?  If one is trying for a higher than usual ABV stout, then yes, especially one that is dripping with malty tones!

Leave a Comment abv, beer kit, beer kit review, malt, stout

Can I cold crash outside, in the cold, in winter?

Cold crashing.

It's a great way to make your beer to stand to attention and free itself of the particles that make your beer cloudy.

Many brewers cold crash in a fridge for a day or three.

But what if you have no beer fridge but only the cold?

Can you cold crash outside, overnight if it's cold?

Well, yes you can but your results may vary.

Generally speaking, cold crashing can take up to 24 - 48 hours to be effective to precipitate out the unwanted proteins so one night in the cold of winter might only get you 12 hours (say 7 pm - 7am) but that's assuming New Zealand conditions.

If you're in America, Canada or the Baltic states or the like, it's damn cold with all that snow so yes, you can cold crash outside for a couple of days and the job will be done but as we said, results may vary.

You may want to crash at night and then place the fermenter somewhere out of the sunlight during the day and then have another crack the second night. Be careful to not disturb the trub too much as you are trying to clear the beer, not stir everything up.

Can it be too cold to crash outside?

The colder the better and it will help precipitate out more yeast, however, you don't want to freeze your beer as that's kind of a disastrous result. So, if you are confident the overnight temperature won't go below freezing point (32F or 0C),  you should be OK. 

The amount of alcohol in your beer will play a factor as well - higher strength ABV beers can resist colder temps a little more but it's not necessary for cold crashing.

Can I just leave my beer in the shed for a week?

You sure can. Brewing is a timing game, so giving your beer an extra week in a cold shed will help lager it and let the yeast do its job. 

Remember you can also add finings shortly before bottling to help clear your beer.

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