Do you let the beer ferment longer? Add more Hops? Add more something else?
It’s been a while, but look up a recipe for barleywine. I made a batch that was the best beer I ever made. I was modeling it after Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine. The key was using champagne yeast, which can tolerate a higher alcohol content than normal brewing yeast.
Get the right yeast and add more sugar I think. I don’t brew for alcohol though.
Alcohol is the result of yeast interacting with sugars (usually in your malted grain). To get a higher alcohol beer, you need more fermentables. You also need different strains of yeast to get really high (in the 10%+ range) alcohol content, but generally, most regular strains should be able to get you in the 8 or even 9% range, IIRC.
Do not add regular table sugar, though. This will give your beer a cidery off-taste.
I’d also be careful what type of beer you do it to. Some beers just taste gross if they are too strong. Others are well-suited to it. I’d try it first on something “heavy” like an English bitter. I’d steer away from doing it to lagers unless you really want to.
Yes, I was meaning sugar in the general sense. I would add more malt extract, if that is what I wanted, which it isn’t.
More sugar and the right yeast, as everyone else has said. Wyeast will tell you what alcohol their strains can tolerate (Their 1010 “American Wheat” only stands 10% ABV, for instance). So you might want to take a chance on a champaign yeast or something.
Silenus probably can answer with specifics, strain numbers, and characteristics.
This is what you get when you mention my name!
Khadaji, what type of beer are you trying to make? The basics are:
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Alcohol is a function of fermentables in the wort. The higher the fermentable sugar content, the higher the potential alcohol content.
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Hops have nothing to do with it.
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As a practical matter, you kinda top out at 14% or so using easily available brewing yeasts. In fact, most die off before you hit 10%. By using wine yeasts and distiller’s yeasts, you can boost the alcohol, but with a great sacrifice in flavor.
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You can also get a higher alcohol content without changing your mash-bill by switching to a slow-flocculating yeast.
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Try a Wyeast 3787 to get the most out of your mash. Or maybe a 1388.
Another thing you can do is run your fermented mash through a filter, then through a distiller, then back through a filter, then back through a distiller. Then store it in a charred wooden cask for 10-12 years.
That’s not technically illegal. But with all the regulations, paperwork, taxes and fees required to distill alcohol in the US, it might as well be. So don’t do it.
(I don’t actually know anything about brewing beer or distilling liquor, but I did look up once what it would take to be a legal distiller, and it wasn’t worth it for anyone who didn’t intend to make a large commercial operation out of it.)
Wouldn’t it be easier to pour more alcohol in? Add Everclear to taste?
Ew! No. Beer is a balanced beverage. If all you want is the alcohol, drink the Everclear straight and skip the beer entirely.
Large commercial brewers can up the alchohol a little by ice distillation. They freeze the beer 'till a slush forms (water ice) and skim the slush off, thus lowering the water content, and by default, increasing the alcohol content. Such is marketed as “ice” beer.
Meh, if I wanted “easy” I’d just buy the beer. And as silenus said, I can’t imagine that actually tasting good.
Another potential “fermentable” is Belgian candi sugar (a fructose/glucose mix which shouldn’t produce the “cidery” taste), used in a number of (surprise) Belgian-style ales. I made what I called a Belgian honey ale that came out at somewhere over 9% ABV using a fair amount of malt, the candi sugar, and honey, plus a Belgian-style yeast strain suited to the beer style and higher alcohol.
Samuel Adams makes some super-high-alcohol “beers”, probably with some hardcore yeasts involved; their latest experiment is Utopias, around 25% alcohol. I haven’t tried that, but their Triple Bock tasted a lot like brandy mixed with maple syrup, IIRC.
High alcohol beers tend to have distinctive, interesting taste (when done well). Adding vodka wouldn’t be the same. They also tend to be a bit more expensive than just buying two beers w/ half the alcohol, so it’s not a very effective way to get buzzed.
Thanks for the answers guys.
I’m not yet brewing - and may never do so. I’m just interested in the process. I had some Molsen XXX the other night which has more alcohol than US beers and it made me wonder.
Khadaji, just to give you an idea of how it relates: If I was going to brew a batch of my pale ale, I’d use about 7 lbs. of grain for a 5 gallon batch. If I was making my IPA, that would use about 10 lbs. If I was making a clone of a “premium” American lager, I would use about 5 lbs.
And if I was making a a Bud Light clone, I’d just urinate into the bottles.
And when I made my batch of Scotch Ale exactly a year ago today, I used a solid 23lbs of grain for 5 gallons.
Cackles
This is also legally considered distillation, FWIW, even if it’s not close to being as efficient as heat separation.
I would also only recommend this process with lagers, as ales will have a higher concentration of fusel alcohols. Fusels lead to unpleasant hangover-like feelings in large concentrations, so concentrating them further will lead to further unpleasantries, not to mention a hot,solvent-ish taste.