Adjusting Alcohol Content

[Rick_UK]

Hello Gents

I am looking at recipes for AG4 in BYOBRA and there are a couple I'm considering. However, ideally I would like to reduce the ABV a little. Both recipes contain at least 300g of white sugar. Would I be best just leaving this out or scaling all the fermentables by the same %age reduction in ABV - in this case 20%. Likewise to increase ABV would it be better to scale up the whole grain bill, just the pale malt or add sugars?

Any adviced from more experienced brewers appreciated.

Rick

[boingy]

Reduce the sugar and base malt (probably pale malt) in the same proportion. If you just cut the sugar you will change the balance of the recipe. Best way is to use some brewing software to tweak the recipe to get the strength you want.

Or choose a different recipe!

I find it quite difficult to brew a fairly weak beer and still get enough flavour and mouthfeel in there.

[Rick_UK]

Thanks Boingy. Will do just that. Not tried any software yet is there any you would recommend and is it expensive?

The beers i'm looking at are around 6% and would prefer them around 5% so hopefully will still pack enough flavour, especially as they are quite dark ales. The GF can't handle them too strong and guess who's fault it is if she winds up legless and wakes up rough the next day?!

Thanks

Rick

[micromaniac]

google beer engine free download by g wheeler that,l do ya.and if it was me i would just loose the sugar,never used any sugar since i stoped doing kits 15 months ago.

[Rick_UK]

Thanks micromaniac. Got the download and looking forward to tinkering!

I was a little sceptical about using sugar, but many of the recipes in BYOBRA include sugar for some reason.

[micromaniac]

Thanks micromaniac. Got the download and looking forward to tinkering!

I was a little sceptical about using sugar, but many of the recipes in BYOBRA include sugar for some reason.

you can use sugar to get the abv up without having to much of a malty taste.1 kilo of sugar will give you approx the same as grain but it will not add any taste also its cheaper to use sugar than grain,maybe thats why brewerys use it ????

[boingy]

Sugar is another of those things that divides home brewers. Some consider it the spawn of Satan, others choose to use it where appropriate. You'll also find plenty of brewers who are sniffy about sugar but are suddenly happy to use it when it is called "candi sugar"...

The reason some of Graham's recipes contain sugar is because he is attempting to emulate a specific ale. Maybe that ale is brewed commercially with sugar or maybe Graham found a bit of sugar just worked best in recreating a particular beer. But in either case, it is there for a reason. if you omit it or replace it with malt you will change the flavour and balance of the beer. It won't result in a bad beer, just a different one. Likewise, if you choose a 6% beer but alter it to be weaker then you will be brewing a different beer. I confess I am a bit confused as to why you would choose one of the 6% beers and then try to brew it at a lower ABV when that book is absolutely packed with great recipes in the 4% range. I can heartily recommend the Ringwood XXXX porter. It's far and away the best one I have brewed from that book so far.

[Rick_UK]

Thanks boingy, my thoughts entirely about the sugar.

The reason for wanting to brew the beers at a lower abv are two fold.
1 - some beers I love the flavour of but would like to drink several pints without being too hammered! (free invitation for insults there!)
2 - I would like to use up existing hops before spending 10 - 15 quid on another 2 or 3 packs, so looking at recipes that use same hops rather than having loads of packs of half used hops floating round the freezer. I'm thinking in future of using a generic bittering hop such as Magnum so only have to worry about the aroma hops which should alleviate this issue - but thats probably another debate.

I'm still an AG novice and with learning, experience and advice hope to be able to create my own recipes to suit my tastes. The software should come in handy with that!

Rick

[boingy]

Software definitely helps with the "using up" bit.
I'm quite a liberal tweaker of recipes and I don't hesitate to substitute one bittering hop for another and software helps you balance the IBU level for different strength hops. A few years ago I went a bit mad with ingredients and ended up with loads of different malts and hops, without any real plan for recipes. Now I have accepted that the beers I like best are English ales so I keep a much less varied inventory, and thus have less problems with using up odds and sods.

[EoinMag]

Kandi sugar is not the same as white sugar is one reason that people are happier to use it, it's been inverted already so won't leave a dodgy flavour in the beer, although once you keep the percentage below about 10% it should be fine and not come over all cidery.

[floydmeddler]

...I would like to use up existing hops before spending 10 - 15 quid on another 2 or 3 packs...
Rick

I recently used http://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk/ to buy my ingredients. Tell them what your recipe is and they'll measure it out and send you the exact ingredients. Works out pretty cheap if you order a few brews worth.