Increasing Alcohol Content

[Jimboe737]

I have read that alcohol content can be increased by adding 50% of the fermentable sugars after 2 0r 3 days of fermentation. The article is in the first edition of the AUSTRALIAN BEERMAKER YEAR BOOK No. 1 published in August 1981. The actual quotation says, "If a very strong beer is desired, use half the sugar at the beginning of fermentation and the rest after two or three days." Has anyone tried this and is there a way to measure the alcohol content in the final brew vs using OG and FG levels at the start and end of the cycle. Adding only half the sugar at commencement will obviously affect the OG so how would one calculate the alcohol content using the suggested method? Interestingly another article states that Carlton products, VB, Fosters, Carlton Draught etc. were 87 cents for a 750ml bottle and Tooheys were $1.05[roll] ! How things have changed in 30 years.

[Guest]

all my fermentables are added in the beginning... Id expect my longnecks to come out at about 85'c

 

I dont expect the yeast would like it very much, having switched from aerobic fermentation through to anearobic fermentation.. most of the simple sugars are eaten up very early on in the ferment and the yeast have changed their diet by then to longer chain sugars... changing their diet back to simple sugars may have a negative effect... or you could end up with VB, Fosters, Carlton Draught [sick] either way I do not do this and there are ways of making "BIG" beers without the added hassle of adding to a ferment that is well under way (and associated risks in doing so)

 

this is just what I understand and assume and have no data to back it up at all and can be happily proven wrong.

 

Yob

 

edit: you have me interested now and Ive dug THIS up for you... my investigation continues [pinched]

 

and THIS

 

sounds weird to me but I just may have to try it sometime.

 

cheers

[Guest]

Did you ever taste the home brews of the late 70's early 80's?? [sick]

Things evolve and there has been a lot of experts since home brewing first began. They were good in their day and I am guessing that if they still brew today then they would have certainly changed their ways for the better.

 

Yob has provided an excellent and valid point with regards to the yeast. Now days we try to pitch the correct amount of viable yeast according to the strength of our brews.

 

The biggest technology leap forward for the home brewer is the internet imo. This provides are very resourceful platform for information to spread like cancer. Thus home brewing got all the better as people experimented through the 90's to achieve where we are at today.

 

I have no doubt that in years to come that things will evolve even further.

[Guest]

especially when Paul gives me a job in the yeast lab [w00t]

 

Hint Hint PB2

[Guest]

No Bite to ^ PB?

[PB2]

I'm not high enough in the food chain to be offering employment.[sideways]

 

I guess, part of the logic here - pitching in a lower OG then adding more fermentables once the SG has dropped - is to avoid stressing the yeast cells with osmotic shock.

[Guest]

PB, could the yeast not be aclimatised to the correxct gravity by a stepping procedure, raising the gravity as you step up? If you knwe what the target OG was then you would also know how many cells you would need for the wort and work it out into a starter plan, ie: ending up at say 2-2.5 lt with x billion cells for the target OG?

 

genuine question [bandit]