Is there an alcohol to sugar ratio/scale???

[xpers]

What I want to know is, is there a scale/guide that tells you how much you are likely to raise the ABV if you add a certain amount of extra sugar?

Is there a scale which says X amount of sugar = X amount of alcohol?

Something like 100g of sugar per 5 litres = an extra 1% ABV.

Is there anything like this?

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Download Graham's Beer Engine and have a play with that. It does all those calculations for you.

[KevP]

I had planned a big reply, but simple answer is NO
100g granulated sugar does not equal 100g Malt

[xpers]

Thanks guys.

I only asked as I was sure I had seen a post on this forum somewhere where someone had said something like as a basic rule if you add an additional 100g pre 5 litres (for example) this would increase the ABV by 0.5%.

It is not important I was just interested if there was a basic scale for the ratio of sugar to alcohol.

I will look on Google for Graham's Beer Engine and have a play.

[gaztop]

I am going to have to get this beer engine aswell.

I found an excellent formula on the internet on Friday but ,for the life of me can't find it again today.

It was a simple formula to work out how much priming sugar to add before bottling. I thought it was excellent and worked out i needed to add 74.6g of brewing sugar.

Does anyone else know of a formula?

I remember having to work out how many cups equalled a tspn!!

[gaztop]

This thread has got me thinking again.

I found a couple of priming calculators online.
How do you know what your desired CO2 volume is?
I have a Nelsons revenge ready to be primed and bottled. What CO2 level do I want?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Parva]

Anywhere between 0.8 and 2 volumes for beer. I tend to aim towards the higher end as I prefer my beer fairly well carbonated (around the level you'd get in a bottle of beer bought at the supermarket). Obviously, if you prefer your beer more 'real-ale' style you'd want to be at the lower end of the range.

[anomalous_result]

What you're after is a basic grounding in recipe formulation. Essentially 1kg of sugar dissolved in 1ltr of water will give you roughly 300 brewing degrees (ie the liquid will have a specific gravity of 1300). 1kg in 23 litres will therefore give you an increase in gravity of 13. Then it depends on how low the final gravity goes as to how much is converted to alcohol, but glucose is (afaik) fully fermentable so will get converted giving about (13/8.06) 1.6% abv increase. I think that's right anyway. The problem is as the alcohol gets higher the yeast gets less inclined to ferment. Also adding lots of sugar can result in a cidery thinness and unbalanced brew which is far from ideal. Essentially don't overdo the raw sugar addition.

For a good start in the simple calculations you need you can check Jim's own page here.