How to increase alcohol percentage? Coopers Cans

[Rob (Guinness Man)]

Hello all,

I did my first brew a while back, Coopers European Lager but it came out at about 4.2%. A little too light for my likings. I want to add more alcohol to the next brew. Something around 5.5% is a good strength. I'm a novice so still on the cans I'm afraid.

 

Whats the easiest way to increase the alcohol percentage without damaging the brew and can this be applied to most Coopers Can recipes?

 

Thanks,

Rob

[LeonardC2]

Hello all,

I did my first brew a while back, Coopers European Lager but it came out at about 4.2%. A little too light for my likings. I want to add more alcohol to the next brew. Something around 5.5% is a good strength. I'm a novice so still on the cans I'm afraid.

 

Whats the easiest way to increase the alcohol percentage without damaging the brew and can this be applied to most Coopers Can recipes?

 

Thanks,

Rob

I like to add DME rather than sugar to up the ABV,& add to the color,flavor,& mouth feel. You could add a couple ounces of maltodextrin,which doesn't ferment out,to give more mouth feel. Or...You could use brew enhancer2 to add dextrose,maltodextrin,& DME all at the same time to up the ABV,get good mouth feel,& improve the flavor/color/aroma a bit. Adding some hops is a good way to balance the extra fermentables too. An ounce of pellets will do nicely.

[craigb12]

The simplest way is just to add more sugar to the brew. The more sugar you add, the more the yeast eats, and the more alcohol it produces. You'll be able to find calculators online that will tell you how much to add - this way you can work out (roughly) what the percentage is likely to be. This should work for pretty much every can that coopers make.

 

Of course, if you want to bump up the percentage AND add some more flavour to the beer, you should think about using dry malt extract. Or spray malt. Or liquid malt. Or using more than one can of hopped malt extract. Or any number of other things that will help the beer.

 

The choice is yours.

 

[LeonardC2]

The simplest way is just to add more sugar to the brew. The more sugar you add, the more the yeast eats, and the more alcohol it produces. You'll be able to find calculators online that will tell you how much to add - this way you can work out (roughly) what the percentage is likely to be. This should work for pretty much every can that coopers make.

 

Of course, if you want to bump up the percentage AND add some more flavour to the beer, you should think about using dry malt extract. Or spray malt. Or liquid malt. Or using more than one can of hopped malt extract. Or any number of other things that will help the beer.

 

The choice is yours.

Be forewarned-adding more dextrose will also dry up the flavor/mouth feel of the beer as well,since it ferments out completely. So that would depend on the style being brewed. That's why I recommended DME (cooper's & most "DME's" are spray dried). It doesn't ferment out quite so completely,so it adds ABV & color,flavor,etc. So more dex is the easiest way,but not always the best way. So,you could make it easy by just adding a box of brew enhancer2...

[Matty A]

I would personally add a mixture of DME and dextrose. While the DME helps keep the body of the beer and the dextrose will only contribute to the alcohol content.

[Canadian Eh!L]

leonard,

 

please define "mouth feel" for me. i have heard this term alot and have even used it myself once or twice. but i truly don't know what the hell it means.[whistling

 

 

[Guest]

I would personally add a mixture of DME and dextrose. While the DME helps keep the body of the beer and the dextrose will only contribute to the alcohol content.

 

+1

 

Just add 250g LDM & 250g Dextrose which should bring it up to about 5.2% then if you are bottling it would be about 5.7%

 

[Matty A]

leonard,

please define "mouth feel" for me. i have heard this term alot and have even used it myself once or twice. but i truly don't know what the hell it means.[whistling]

 

 

The idea is that if you brew with all dextrose etc the beer will be thinner as alcohol is thinner then water. So we add malt not only for flavour but since it doesn't get fully fermented it leaves more proteins etc in the beer which makes it feel differant in your mouth.

 

Mouthfeel goes into alot broader detail then this, as I have seen a reviewer notice that the beer leaves a film like feel on the roof of his mouth [alien]

[Guest]

"Mouthfeel: is the perception of body in the beer and is caused by the residual proteins and dextrins in the beer. For each style, there is an appropriate amount of body to be expected. Body is generally classified as light, medium, or full. Body is how heavy or how light a beer feels in the mouth. This is a result of how much malt sugar has been converted into sugar. Full bodied beers have more residual sugar than light bodied beers. "

 

See Tasting Beer

[JackBlack]

As previously said by others - I'd suggest a mix of DME and dextrose

[Rob (Guinness Man)]

Many thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated. So I have a few newbie questions.

 

Does dry malt extract do the same things as malt extract in liquid form?

 

Do you need to boil up DME before adding or do you mix it with the initial hot water and swirl it around like Coopers recommends?

 

Whats the difference between Dry Malt Extract and Light Dry Malt Extract? Lighter? :D

 

So from what your all saying would a a brew like this work?

Can of Coopers

250G Dry Malt Extract

250G Dextrose

Then bottle (330ml) with a teaspoon of sugar

 

Thanks,

Rob

[Muddy Waters]

Does dry malt extract do the same things as malt extract in liquid form?

 

It sure does - It's stores better too. If converting from liquid malt to dry allow for 20% water content in the liquid malt extract.

 

Do you need to boil up DME before adding or do you mix it with the initial hot water and swirl it around like Coopers recommends?

 

There is no need to boil Coopers malt for sanitary reasons but the choice to boil or swirl is purely up to what you prefer.

 

Whats the difference between Dry Malt Extract and Light Dry Malt Extract? Lighter? :D

 

Each dry malt will give a similar colour to it's liquid equivalent whether it be light, amber, dark etc. Other than that the only real difference is one is dry and the is liquified and contains some water content.

 

So from what your all saying would a a brew like this work?

Can of Coopers

250G Dry Malt Extract

250G Dextrose

Then bottle (330ml) with a teaspoon of sugar

 

This would give you an alcohol content of 3.5% (@23L) as you said earlier you'd prefer something a bit higher I'd be inclined to up the DME to 1kg and back the volume back to 21L - This would take you to around the 5.1% mark (or slightly higher).

 

 

 

[Rob (Guinness Man)]

Thanks Muddy for the comments.

[91abv_chris]

I've experimented with a couple of fermentable sugars, one I thought was fun was agave extract. Another (more adventurous one) is a simple flaked maize mash.

 

Canned fruit even has some creative uses in some beers...I made a boisenberry weisen that I thought was great and a good learning experience (the most important lesson was to puree and strain the fruit before adding to the wort)

[Beer Loving Trent]

has anyone used liquid sugar as I had two cans of it used it and made a mess but it seemed to work ok would love to here so feed back from other on liquid sugar

[LeonardC2]

Well,in regard to mouth feel vs ABV,my first cooper's OS lager used the brewing sugar,& was 5.3%ABV. My Summer Pale ale used the OS lager can,with 3lbs of Munton's plain extra light DME with 2 hop additions. It came out at 4.8%ABV. So,the brewing sugar gives a bit more ABV,but the DME in it's place gives more flavor,aroma,color,& the like. Which do you really prefer?...