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We are interested in making a brew with the highest alcohol content possible but we have been told that adding extra sugar will affect the quality of the beer severely. Is there any other method for raising the alcohol content without making the beer unbearable?

Yours in anticipation, Hanky and Lobs

Your best bet is to use malt extract for at least 65% of the fermentables. You should probably use quite a bit of hops to add bitterness and flavour/aroma to offset the high levels of malt and alcohol. 10-12% can be achieved fairly easily this way. Also use dextrose instead of sugar as it will be fairly neutral in flavour.

hanknlobs wrote:We are interested in making a brew with the highest alcohol content possible but we have been told that adding extra sugar will affect the quality of the beer severely. Is there any other method for raising the alcohol content without making the beer unbearable?

Yours in anticipation, Hanky and Lobs

The highest alcohol beer I've ever made was around 7%. And it was a very drinkable stout. IIRC, typical beer yeasts will start to die if the alcohol content gets much higher than that (ie, around 8% - 9%). Your best bet would be to use a speciality yeast specifically suited to such a task. Also, be prepared to rack the brew to a secondary fermenter because you'll develop a thick layer of trub as a by product.

As for the recipe... a kit + 1kg dextrose + 2kg DME would get you something in the vicinity of 9% alcohol if you can keep the yeast alive.

Use White Labs Belgian Trappist Yeast WLP500 I think it is good to 16%. If you give us a target ABV we can make a recipe that will suit. Also we will need to know what size boil you are able to do and how easily you can get fresh hops and specialty malts.

I have to weigh in here - although it was a number of years ago and only alcoholic lemonade, a group of mates and I managed to hit the 15% mark. There was only a few rockets going off in the brew cupboard but we all managed to survive
On reflection i'm not really sure the extra sugar improved the taste but it had the effect a 18 year old is looking for

18? That old?

Ahhh, if memory serves me correct, those were the days

If your memories are correct, you didn't drink enough beer...

Chris wrote:If your memories are correct, you didn't drink enough beer...

I am glad I am still able to look back on a few of those days... I dread the day they are gone!

Thanx for all the information!

We really appreciate it!

Cheers, your pals, Hanky and Lobs.

I would do a search for barley wine, it being the strongest style of beer out there. That way you'll have a fair chance of getting something actually drinkable as opposed to if you modify a normal beer recipe and take it way out of balance.

The biggest I've made was and IPA about 8.6% abv and close to 60 IBUs (Rager scale, Tinseth would be about 40 IBUs). This was a standard all-grain pale ale with two cans of light liquid malt extract and about twice the hops. we got an OG of about 1.080

very yummy. It took a while to mellow out, though.

The real question is why you want to do this in the first place? Are you guys trying to genuinely emulate high-alcohol style beers like trappist ales? Or are you just wanting to have some fun? If so, buy some champagne yeast, or turbo yeast and knock yourself out. You can have all sorts of fun with a couple of kilograms of white sugar and a packet of turbo yeast. Just add whatever flavours you want. For example, I've made both lemon "wine" and apple "wine". The lemon wine was revolting but the apple wine was vaguely drinkable. Both were over 15% alcohol.

Ugh. I would not drink anything that came out of a turbo yeast without distilling it first. That stuff smells vile. You do know that you can just make twice as much beer for the same price, right? And you then get to drink twice as much beer! What's not to like?

champagne yeast will get up to 18% and produce no off flavours. Its much slower than turbo yeast which chews thru worts but prduces a wide range of alcohols not just ethanol. NEVER USE IT FOR BEER MAKING!

I used the Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast all the time for ginger beer and ciders.

But it has to be said - better off brewing 2-3 times more beer than brew something that WILL taste worse than VB.

I generally brew in the 4-5% range these days. Can still easily get hammered (just ask my partner) but i get to drink more and its much better tasting. My last ESB was 4.0% and a damn fine drop too.

The best I've done is about 10%, BUT, my missus dropped me off at a mates place cause she had to do a 3hr shift @ work. And guess what, I forgot that I'd made this double strength batch an downed about half a slab in that 3hrs. I was sick, she wasn't happy, and the mates dog had his way with me & I may have been made fun off in the process, I don't remember

I've made a barleywine that reached 15.4% after having an OG of 1143.

It took the Lavin EC 1118 to reach that high, and it tastes fine now. not something you can drink more than once a week.

Trizza.