Increasing alchohol

There are online calculators like the beer recipator found at:

that will help in figuring your grain/extract ratios.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com;11467 Wrote:

Typically wheat yeast will handle alcohol levels in the 5% - 10% range.

Good luck, Wild

Yep, you could do that.

I'm sure there's a calculation somewhere, maybe you could try

I haven't looked there but you could try, do a Google search too.

You can do a rough estimate, if you know what the original kit is supposed to produce. If you double the malt it will produce *about* double the alcohol. You should be good up to about 12% to 15% without worrying too much about the yeast...although if you're going to go that high you may want to make a starter and step the yeast up a bit.

With the right yeast, and using the right proceedure, you could even get up as high as 21% or so...but the higher you go the more aging time you'll need to produce a quality result. At 21/22% you might need to age it for 1 to 3 years.

Hey, we all have to start somewhere and learn. That guy at the shop doesn't sound too bright- if he makes people who are just starting out feel bad because they don't have the knowledge, they aren't going to want to go to his shop to buy the things they need. Sounds pretty stupid to me.

If I had a shop like that, I'd be more than happy to teach people and help them- they'd brew more and buy more supplies and I'd make more money. Hell, there's a lot of us on these groups that do it for free. If you're really interested in making good beer, check out the rec.crafts.brewing newsgroup- there are a bunch of good people there.

I would try something simple like brewing to less of a final volume (add less water). Experiment away.

A really quick guestimate is about a pound of DME 1% alcohol if I remember correctly. Thats a really rough approimation though. One thing to consider if you do this though is you will need more hops to balance the additional malt flavor. Play with the recipe on sites liek thr recipator listed earlier and get something you think will be good.

imho:

An easier way to increase alcohol is to 'fortify' you beer with the addition of grain alcohol. This has been told to me how people use to add some zest to weaker/sweater brews.

Now what I would try, via fermenation, by increasing fermenable sugars with higher alcohol tolerant yeast.

But then this is just a guess, fun part about home brewing, is that you can try and test, till you like. :D

later,

tom @

Let me say this another way:

Make your beer kit with less than the called for amount of water. This will increase your specific gravity which will result in more alcohol AND keep the beer/hops/alcohol ratios in balance.

If you are making a 5 gallon kit at an origional gravity of 1.040 and a final gravity of 1.009 then make it to just 4.5 gallons and your specific gravity should go to 1.045. That would result in your alcohol by volume to go from 4.1% up to 4.8% approximately.

Thanks for the tip on the rec brewing group. I have been reasding for days and am barely half way through all the messages I got when I subscribed! Is there an archive for the group anywhere?

Thanks aga>On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:59:44 -0600, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote: >

I think there is an archive somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Another great resource is

This is the Homebrewers Digest website. A lot of the same folks on the RCB group also hang out of the forum on HBD. When you bring up the site, just scroll down to the Discussions link on the left hand side of the page. Lots of great info there plus there is a search feature that will let you look through years of archives. Before you can post you do have to register. This is free and is required to keep the spambots from automatically posting crap to the site. Once registered you can also subscribe to the Home Brew Digest. This is an email based daily compilation of questions, answers and commentary by members of HBD. You can also post questions to the digest.

Lots of great resources out there once you know where to look. If you like fun as well as great homebrewing information check out

This website has a great forum for posting your questions. Lots of award winning homebrewers and craft brewers are regulars on there. Lots of photos also posted there so you can actually see brew systems used by other folks. This site is actually an adjunct to the webcasts put on by those folks. The primary webcast is on Sunday nights (5:00 pm, Pacific time). This is a live 2.5-3 hour program on brewing and brewing related activities. They bring in lots of guests such as the head brewers from various craft breweries. They have had Chris White (founder of White Labs) on there a couple of times. During these webcasts listeners can call in by phone, or submit questions and comments via the chat room on the website. In addition to the great brewing information that comes across, there is a lot of irreverent fun and lots of drinking. A lot of us homebrewers send them beers for them and the guests to sample and critique on the air. Nothing like having the head brewer from the Russian River or Gordon Biersch breweries reviewing your beers for you! Everyone is friendly and glad to help. Just be warned that this is an adult forum and sometimes the language is not suitable for youngsters to listen to. Check them out.

Wayne Bugeater Brewing Company