HomebrewandBeer.com forum

Hi all,

just getting back into it after along break with a Coopers GB kit to get my feet wet! 7 days in the fermenter, occasional bubbles. any value/harm in adding extra sugar now to boost ABV (and would it need extra yeast?
also, what is typical length of brew for Coopers GB? (broke my hydrometer and it might be a while before replacing)

Cheers

My two cents would be to leave this one alone and tweak your next brew, without a hydrometer you have no way of testing if the newly added sugar has been converted and you could possibly end up with bottle bombs on a large scale.

IMHO if you are going to add more sugar I would suggest that you make a sugar syrup and pour that in.

just be careful about the amount you add as you might find the alcohol flavour takes over the beer and you end up with a "moonshine" beer, I learnt this lesson by adding a dry enzyme to a beer that had nearly stuck in fermentation (probably because I added the extra kg of sugar at the start and the yeast got tired) and although it fermented out it wasn't an enjoyable beer.

cheers