Extra Dextrose?

[EnergeticSloth]

Im sure this has prob been covered before somewhere

A mate was saying to me the other day that i should add extra dextrose (aprox1.2-1.4kg) to my brews to increase the alco %
I purchased a new fermenter and came with a cheap tin so i thaught i might try his theory.
Would there be anything wrong with doing this or am i better off adding extra malt or other addertives?

The tin is a beermakers draught

 

[Kingy]

yea extra sugar equals more alcohol. When my stocks get low i go to coles and get a cheap coopers green tin, 1kg of Brew enhancer 1 and 1kg of brew enhancer 2 and use a good yeast (saf 04 is my fav for this)

works out about $17 and simple to do for a very nice beer. and higher alcohol of course.

 

[FazerPete]

Im sure this has prob been covered before somewhere

A mate was saying to me the other day that i should add extra dextrose (aprox1.2-1.4kg) to my brews to increase the alco %
I purchased a new fermenter and came with a cheap tin so i thaught i might try his theory.
Would there be anything wrong with doing this or am i better off adding extra malt or other addertives?

The tin is a beermakers draught

Dextrose is 100% fermentable so it will add alcohol without adding any extra flavour so if this is what you want then feel free. I probably wouldn't go over 2kg of added fermentables if you are using the kit yeast though because it is likely to have a problem eating it all. Also be careful adding too many brew enhancer packets though because they contain maltodextrin which is only 70% fermentable which can lead to a sticky feel to the beer if there is too much of it.

I recommend putting in 1 kg of either BE1 or BE2 and then top up with extra malt to give it more flavour. In fact the simplest way to get a really flavoursome, high alcohol beer very cheaply is to just use 2 kits and nothing else and throw both yeast packets in. This will come out somewhere around 7%-7.5% depending on the kits.

 

[brettprevans]

Im sure this has prob been covered before somewhere

A mate was saying to me the other day that i should add extra dextrose (aprox1.2-1.4kg) to my brews to increase the alco %
I purchased a new fermenter and came with a cheap tin so i thaught i might try his theory.
Would there be anything wrong with doing this or am i better off adding extra malt or other addertives?

The tin is a beermakers draught

If you do a search on 'crippler' you will find a recipe with 4kg of fermentable sugars ranging from dex to candy sugar. As already said, Dex is fully fermentable so you dont get any flavour. If you used malt etc then you would also get % but also more flavour. I quite often drop a bit more dex or similar into my brews if I want to 'top up' the %alc