Alc %

[j1gsaw]

Hey all.
On the 13/4 i batched a strong belgian dark ale, OG was 1.090 with 22L batch. I was hoping for 1.100.
I used wyeast trappist high grav to kick it off and it went like wildfire.
By day 8 (grav was 1.040) I then started adding 50ml's of dark belgian candi syrup to the beer, and this went on for 10 days. At day 13, i pitched 2 (5g) packets of champagne yeast.
I just did a hydro sample to check how its going, and it read 1.018. (Tasty drop too! nice alcohol warmth and that trappist zing)

Now im trying to rack my brain on just what alc % i will end up with from this beer?
The soul purpose of this beer was to crack at least 15% alc, but im not sure if im even close, though it will be sitting for another week or two before i CC, so it may drop some more i hope. It was fermented at 18-20deg. I plan to give it a few days at ambient temp also.

Does adding the sugar in increments over time help boost a stronger alc % i wonder? as opposed to dropping the lot in.
Maybe someone with a better beer calc program can help me out. Cheers.

 

[benno1973]

Not sure what your alc content will be, but feeding the yeast sugars incrementally does a lot for yeast health and allows them to ferment out more fully, as opposed to dropping them in a really high gravity wort. So yes, feeding sugars incrementally will probably get you a higher alcohol content, due to happier yeast.

And I'm not sure that dropping a few more points from 1.018 would get you that much more alcohol on top of what you've already got. Obviously it would contribute, but it'd be a drop in the ocean, and 1.018 sounds pretty low already for a high grav beer?

 

[HarryB]

From memory, sugar adds about 460 points of gravity per kg in a litre of solution.
Eg. 1kg of sugar in 20L of water would be a 1.023 gravity solution.

Use this formula and add the result to your OG (you would need to know the density of your candy sugar I guess) and go from there.
There are many ABV calculators you can use once you have done that.

 

[WarmBeer]

I just ran the numbers into Beersmith.

I based on a rough figure of 80% of the Candi Syrup being fermentable sugar (as opposed to water), adding 500ml (i.e. 50ml x 10 days) would contribute about 6 gravity points, giving you a total gravity of 1.090 + 1.006 = 1.096.

Assuming an FG of 1.018, this will give you a %alc of about 10.2%, excluding any added alcohol from secondary fermentation in the bottle once you add bottling sugar.

Not quite up there at 15%, but still going to knock you around, especially after a couple of longnecks.

 

[j1gsaw]

I just ran the numbers into Beersmith.

I based on a rough figure of 80% of the Candi Syrup being fermentable sugar (as opposed to water), adding 500ml (i.e. 50ml x 10 days) would contribute about 6 gravity points, giving you a total gravity of 1.090 + 1.006 = 1.096.

Assuming an FG of 1.018, this will give you a %alc of about 10.2%, excluding any added alcohol from secondary fermentation in the bottle once you add bottling sugar.

Not quite up there at 15%, but still going to knock you around, especially after a couple of longnecks.

Cheers for that. I might have to buy another bottle of syrup and keep it running.
That or freeze it.. hmmm ideas ideas.