[wolverine]

Hi guys I have a lager home brew kit on the go and it requires 1 kg of sugar so I put in 1 kg of brewers sugar. If I like my beer to be a bit stronger than normal can I disolve a little sugar in water and pour it in ? how much would you add if you were aiming for a 6% brew in a  5 gallon bin?
I was thinking that if 1kg produces 4-5 % then 250g gives say 1ish% so another 250g would be enough to bump it up is that right ? Does it work like that?
Thanks

[nickmcmechan]

yes i think it does work that way, but you could ruin the flavour of your brew...

[hamstergbert]

You might get away with it - certainly the logic behind boosting the sugar to boost the eventual strenght is broadly - although actually you would need a teensy bit more, say 300gm) OK but you may well impair the taste when you stir the additional sugar in (and best to extract some of you mix to stir the addditional sugar into rather than add extra water) as it will lift he yeast around again.

My personal recommendation is to finish it as it is and simply remember to do it differently next time - and invest in a cheapie hydrometer to assess the starting and finishing SG (specific gravity). That way you can fine tune the eventual strength right at the start and know pretty well exactly what you are going ot finish up with!  (you can pick up the beasties for a few quid at the home brew suppliers and most come with a simple guide to make it easy to understand and use.)

[Runwell-Steve]

1 Kg of sugar does not give you 4 - 5% in 23 litres, it will only give you 2.6%  in 23 Litres (5 gallon)

The rest of you alcohol in your lager will be coming from the malt extract that was in the kit.

Adding more sugar alone will add alcohol, but will also make your lager taste thin and watery as it has no flavour.

If you want more strength and more body you would be better off adding some Pale Dried Malt Extract / SprayMalt.  This will give you increased body and alcohol.

To increase your alcohol content by 1% you will need either.

400g of household table sugar or
650g of Dried Malt Extract.

[wolverine]

Thanks runwell steve I will add dried malt extract to my next brew 

[SussexSocialist]

From kits I find the best way to make a stronger beer is to brew less. By this I mean if the kit is for 40 pints say, make it up to only 30. This keeps the flavours and texture but increases the ABV quite dramatically. I have just finished a kit that was supposed to be 4%ABV at 40 pints but I made it to 30 pints and kegged it and it finished at 4.9%ABV and tastes great!

I also now try and avoid kits that require sugar for the initial ferment. I tend to stick to Woodfordes or Milestone and similar, slightly dearer but superb taste and no extra sugar required other than for bottling/kegging which is minute. Hope this helps!

[timtheenchanteruk]

I have a stevenson and reeves hydrometer, it has an extra scale on it that gives you the approx abv, Ive found it pretty good, not exact but good enough.

on the other side, it has a scale for dry-sweet for wines too, not sure on the accuracy of this, but I should find out before too long