Hi, I am about to start my carribou slobber brown ale starter kit. I want to make the abv slightly higher than the expected 5.5%. I was wondering what is the best way to go about doing this? I want to get it in the 7% range…
Add dark DME
Add Brown sugar
If you increase the ABV, you will need to change the amounts of hops to keep it in balance.
Guessing by the fact that you just signed up for an account on the forum, I’ll say you are a new brewer? Brew the kit as it was intended so you are not disappointed. On the next one you can make changes.
In general, 1lb of DME will give you .008 points in 5 gallons. Table sugar will yield .009 points.
right, I don’t want to ruin the flavor, just increase it by a little. woukd I be able to add 2 lbs of table sugar to the wort to do that?
Yes 2lbs of sugar will raise the ABV. Which will change the balance of the beer.
If you want 7%, then make a different beer.
If that beer was meant to be 7%, it would be.
Just my opinion.
What’s going to happen when you bump the abv up with table sugar like that is the beer will dry out. It will taste awful. I’d go with the dark dme or lme recommendations so you’re still getting the necessary malt flavors. Also, +1 on increasing your hop bill by about 15% so the IBUs are still there to balance it out. What you’ll likely end up with is either a black ale or a really dark brown… old ale kinda style.
Yes great point NH…if you increase the fermentables increase the hops too in order to sustain your balance…in your case you are looking at probably 2-3 lbs dark dme and a few grams of hops…no biggie
