Kick up the Alchol %

[Big Port]

I am wondering what the best way to kick up the ABV in a home brew recipe would be. The recipe below is for a Maple porter and they are saying it should turn out to around 5.4% and I'd like to bump that up to about 6.5%. Any suggestions?


Maple Porter (5 Gallons)


6.6 lbs. unhopped light malt extract syrup
2 lbs. light dry malt extract
0.25 lbs. black malt
0.5 lbs. roasted malt
10 oz. chocolate malt
0.75 lb. caramel (crystal) malt, 50° Lovibond
1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hops
16 oz. maple syrup
Wyeast 1098 <BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">OG- 1.070 FG- 1.016





<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">Edited by: Big Port

 

[masta]

I made a Maple Porter last year and after some research found out it is tough to keep the maple flavor in the finish beer.


I added 32 oz of Grade "B" syrup to the secondary to help retain some of the maple flavor and aroma. The Grade "B" syrup also is darker and stronger tasting than the Grade "A" most people use for their table.


The beer came out excellent and I will look at my SG numbers when I get home tonight. Adding extra syrup will certainly increase the alcohol but not sure how much without doing a calculation.

 

[Big Port]

Thanks for the info. Is Grade "B" syrup something that you can pick up any any regular grocery store?

 

[masta]

Not sure if you can find it at your grocery store or not. I bought mine at a local discount store where the wife works.


If you can't find any let me know and I could always get some and ship it to you. With the wife's discount and shipping to you, it still would still be a reasonable price for pure maple syrup.


If you are interested just send me a PM.

 

[Big Port]

I will look for the syrup over the next couple days. If you wouldn't mind posting your recipe for the batch you made? Ifound the one above in a google search and have no idea how it will turn out, you said yours was "excellent" so I would love to give it a shot.

 

[masta]

The beer was actually a Brown Porter and the company I bought it from makes up the kits and does notdisclose the ingredients.


My OG was 1.050 and this was with adding 17 oz of Grade "A" maple syrup to the boil...forgot about that until I checked my records. The FG was 1.010 after adding the 32 oz of Grade "B" syrup to the secondary.


You need to to be careful of adding too much malt or syrup since the FG could end up to high and the beer will be too sweet. The Wyeast 1098 is the best choice and has a attenuation of 73-75%.


Using my handy calculator the added 16 oz of syrup to your recipe will add another .5 % ABV.....OG 1.075 and FG 1.019 with 75% attenuation.


Another note: The fermentation took forever to complete in the secondary after I added the maple syrup. It was 6 weeks from when I added the syrup to when I bottled!

 

[Big Port]

Great info. Thanks for the help. I will see if I can find the Grade "B" around here and if not I'll PM you. Thanks again!

 

[AAASTINKIE]

look in health food stores for grade B

 

[Big Port]

Got this batch going over the weekend. OG started at 1.080. Checked it tonight and it's down to 1.030, I think I will rack it tomorrow night. I did sneak a little taste and it was phenomenal, still a little sweet but it was still great…can’t wait for it to finish. If it turns out similar to the taste now it’s going to be the batch I compare all others to. I’ll let you know in a month or so if it lived up to all the hype. <?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />

 

[masta]

So what did you add to the recipe in the original post...16 more oz of syrup?

 

[Big Port]

I only had a 3 gallon carboy available so I cut the recipe down to 3 gallons. I also used DME instead of LME, my cut down recipe called for 4.8lbs and I rounded up to 5lbs, and the cut down recipe called for 9.6 oz of syrup and I added 12 oz. I am sure that’s why the OG was so high but with the yeast attenuation percentage of 73-75% I should end up with an FG of around 1.020ish. I am going to see how things are looking and tasting when I transfer tonight. I may just skip the additional maple syrup in the secondary since I am pretty happy with the taste now. <?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />