How To Increase The Alcohol Content of Homebrew Beer

Does you homebrew beer suffer from an exceptionally low alcohol content? Even if you follow your brew kit’s instructions step by step, there’s always a chance of it coming out with a low-to-mediocre alcohol content. And there’s nothing more discouraging than finding your newly brewed batch of beer has a watered down consistency. The good news, however, is that you can prevent this from happening by following some simple steps.

Should I Use Less Water?

There’s some belief that using less water in your homebrew will translate into a higher alcohol content. By reducing the water of your homebrew, though, the only thing you will change is the total amount of beer brewed. Your beer might be slightly higher in alcohol, but it’s not a significant or noticeable amount by any means. Stick with the appropriate amount of water for your homebrew and look for other ways to bump up the alcohol content.

More Sugar

The secret to brewing beer with a higher alcohol content is to add more sugar. As you may already know sugar is converted by the yeast into alcohol; therefore, common sense should tell you that adding more sugar leads to a higher alcohol content. If your current brew specs doesn’t yield a high enough alcohol content for your liking, try bumping it up to 30-40% more sugar. This may seem a bit excessive, but the additional sugar will turn into alcohol, giving your homebrew beer a nice kick.

If you make any changes to your homebrewing recipe, be sure to write them down somewhere for future reference. It may take some trial and error to determine exactly who much sugar you need to brew a good batch of beer, by writing down your recipes and results will make the process easier. Keep tweaking and modifying the amount of sugar until you’ve found the perfect recipe for delicious homebrew beer with the right alcohol content.

Raise The Brewing Temp

Another key tip for brewing beer with a higher alcohol content is to raise the temp. By raising the temperature of your brew, you’ll encourage faster and more efficient conversion of sugar to alcohol. Remember, though, it only takes a couple of degrees for this to work. Brewing your beer with a temperature that’s too high can literally burn your beverage, which is something no one wants to see happen. Stick with just a couple of degrees higher than normal to see how it affects your brew.