What if....

[Bierman707]

Okay, I don't plan on doing anything stupid, but if I wanted to put in more sugar for higher abv% would it hurt? I'm looking to bottle this weekend so I'm not messing with this batch, but what if I did that during my next brew day? Just curious what the outcome would be.

 

[jmcnamara]

You'd have more abv , but it would be a really thin and dry beer.
Since sugar is 100% fermentable it doesn't leave anything behind in terms of mouthfeel
I'd suggest looking to bump up the extract and specialty malts a little bit if you add a lot more sugar in. Try to keep things balanced a bit

 

[philjohnwilliams]

How much higher do you want your ABV to go? If it is just a question of going from 5% to 6% then skip the simple sugar and just bump the alcohol with more extract (or grain if you are brewing all grain). If your recipe is for 5 gallons and it is 5% abv then adding two extra pounds of DME will get you into the 6.5% range..

 

[J A]

It can be done and often is, but you have to balance flavor and body, like jmcnamara says.
Sugar in the form of cooked, caramalized syrup or candi-sugar is often added to Belgian beers to boost alcohol. It works with beers that start out with a lot of malt and very often dark, caramelly flavors to start with. Boosting a fairly light beer from 4% to 6% would probably be pretty bland and not very flavorful but boosting a beer from 6-7% up to 8-9% can be pretty sublime.