Increasing the alcohol content over time...

[stevezx7r]

Hi all, been a while since I last posted. I found out the other day that a neighbour of mine used to HB wine a few years back. He said he used to add sugar over a period of several days/weeks to increase the alcohol content (he used to get around 20+%). Is this a good idea with beer/lager or will it upset the flavour? If I was to do this I think taking a pint of the fermenting wort, boiling it with "X" amount of DME, cooling it then popping it back in would be the best thing.

Any thoughts on this?

BTW, a few mates were round the other day and I showed them my fermenting lager (which stank of sulpher!). Suffice to say I was ridiculed for about an hour due to my skank brew. Checked it a couple of days later and the smells not so bad. Hope it clears right out.

[Hoppkins]

I wouldn't worry about the smell. People are used to the neutral smell when they open a can of arse lager.

When fermenting beer will make all kinds of wonderful and nasty smells, it's just that your friends have never smelt fermenting beer before i guess. Your final product wont smell like it and i can bet the average batch of Carling Black Label didn't smell like roses during fermentation.

[Jim]

I believe that the idea of adding sugar in stages in winemaking is to help prevent stuck fermentations. Apparently the high gravity of the must can inhibit the yeast. By adding in stages, some sugar can be fermented out, thus reducing the sg before adding the next lot.

[stevezx7r]

Ok, thanks for that guys. I might try adding the dme in stages on my next brew.

Steve.