Brewing for a higher ABV

[Steve Russell]

I have a good recipe for a NEIPA, pretty juicy and hazy not a lot of hops, Sabra in the boil/ hop stand, Simcoe in the boil and El Dorado in the dry hop. The ABV was 5.55 and I wanted to do the next batch and raise the ABV. I make 5 gallon batches with a Grainfather G30, I read you can add a pound of dextrose sugar in the grain bill or use a more aggressive yeast or a yeast starter during fermentation? I wonder if this would change the taste of the beer too much? Thank you!

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I read you can add a pound of dextrose sugar in the grain bill or use a more aggressive yeast or a yeast starter during fermentation?

Any sugar will lighten the body of the beer and raise the ABV. Adding more grain will increase both the ABV and the body. If you are going to add sugar, you can add it at the end of the boil. As you raise the OG of the beer, it's generally assumed that the hop character is also raised. More malt, more hops to balance things out. With sugar additions, this may not be the case.

As for the yeast, I don't really know about a "more aggressive" yeast, maybe your thinking of a diastaticus yeast. It's strain of yeast that produces amylase enzyme during fermentation, which continues to convert left over starches in beer, producing sugar as it's ferments. They have a tendency to produce clove like flavors found in Belgian strains and thinner beers. Some Belgian strains are diastaticus. I don't think this would be a good strain for a NEIPA.

As far as a starter, you should be pitching the correct amount of yeast, too many yeasts can lead to low attenuation or a bland tasting beer due to lack of esters. Too few can lead to low attenuation as well and off flavors from stressed yeast.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Mark Farrall]

Aggressive yeast could mean something that tolerates higher alcohol. Some yeast become less efficient or even stop fermenting once the ABV gets in the 8-10% range. If you look at the yeast you're thinking of using in your recipe it should give you the ABV range it prefers. Aggressive could also mean fermentation speed and they certainly exist, but as the ABV gets higher, alcohol tolerance is more important than speed. A lot of people will add two yeast strains. One that ferments up to 8-9%ABV and another that can finish off the beer once the ABV gets higher.

Also if you're using the recipes from this site, in that yeast section you'll see a link to the Yeast Pitch Rate and Starter Calculator. You can use that to work out if you need a starter. If you're using dry yeast you may just want to pitch multiple packets. If it's liquid yeast, or more than two dry yeast packets, the cost mounts up, so you may want to make a starter instead.

 

[Donoroto]

As already said, sugar decreases body. But if you add liquid or dry malt extract into the boil you will definitely increase the ABV. A friend just brewed a porter, it ended up over 9% after adding 2 pounds of dry malt extract.

Just be sure your yeast selection can handle the additional alcohol.

 

[J A]

Raising from 5.5 ABV will be a simple matter of using more malt in the bill. If you're hitting the limit on your mash tun, then just add malt extract to the wort. The recipe calculator will tell you exactly how much more ABV you'll get according to how much grain or extract you add.

 

[Bubba Wade]

Increasing alcohol a small amount usually works okay. However, note that not all recipes taste right if the ABV is raised by 2 or 3%. They tend to get out of balance unless other adjustments are also made. Good luck.