Alcohol content

I`d like to know how strong beer can I brew at home. I produce beer from Muntons Brew Kits and I wonder how much alcohol my beer can contain. I know than normally this kind of beer contain about 4.5% alcohol. What shoul I do to make the stronger beer (is it possible?). What will happen if I add more sugar (normally I add about 1 kg). Is it a simple link between sugar amount and alcohol content in homebrewing? And the last question is - how strong beer can I brew using brew kit at home?
Thank you for answering

You can make beer that is quite strong at home. Actually it`s quite easy. If you are using kits to get twice the alcohlo all you have to do is double the kits. If you usually use one kit and 1 kg of sugar to get 4.5% then 2 kits and 2 kg of sugar will give you around 9%. Keep in mind that some beer yeast will only ferment to a certain % before it dies off. If you want to go over say 9% you should use champagne or wine yeast. The champagne yeast I think is the most alcohol tolerant strain you can get. I don`t know what it will go up to but I`ve brewed some very high gravity beers with it by jacking up the malt content and adding a pint of honey to a 5 gallon batch of beer. This stuff was so strong that you could only drink 4 to 5 beers in an evening and if you did you would still feel the effects at noon the next day. Tony

Thanks for advice. Could you tell me how long should last the fermentation before I pour the beer into bottles? Normally it takes about 5 days. Should it be longer? Is there any possibility that too high suger concetration (=> carbone dioxide) will cause my bottles explosion?

On my high gravity beers I would usually ferment for 5 to 10 days in the primary fermenter and then rack to a secondary fermenter for about 2 weeks. after that you should have a high alcohol clear beer that won`t explode on you.

11 to 12% is not too tough to get to with champagne yeast. Use a hydrometer to judge when to bottle. Really high gravity brews can take a long time, especially if you use honey. Sometimes they can get `stuck` and not ferment out as far as you wanted, and then much later over pressurize your bottles as it sloooooowly continues to ferment.
-Bubble-
Could you tell me how long should last the fermentation before I pour the

i was reading a book on home brewing it said to much sugar will make your beer taste like wine: champagne yeast can handle higher alcohol levels but it can change the flavor, if you want to experiment try mixing the two yeasts 50/50--60/40--80/20 and so on,,,,,,but remember if getting higher alcohol was that easy they would have changed the recipes (years ago) , (its all about flavor) you can get winebeer recipes YUK all they do is add more sugar & a few berries to get the alcohol up, i think mixing honey & malt to your priming sugar can raise the alcohol level a tad bit with out changing the BEER flavor in fact it will add flavor, i have a good batch of high alcohol beer but i think it was just dumb luck , or it was the priming sugar?? but use a keg when experimenting with priming sugars or you will blow all your bottles SKY HIGH

if you want to experiment with high alcohol try your hand at potato beer, ((thats what im going play with next)) it is naturally higher in alcohol, you can always add a little VODKA to potato beer at bottling time (but not to much), the yeast may stop working

Here`s a recipe that will knock your socks off. I haven`t tried making it myself yet but I have had a couple of bottles, it is definately not for the weak of heart! You can purchase it from http://www.brewmaxer.com . Gravity Yeast (WLP099) available in November-December. However, BrewMaxer has this yeast available all year. The Super High Gravity Yeast coupled with the White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP300) makes this beer reach Alcohol levels of 18.2% v/v (14.3% w/w). Not for the weak of heart!!! This is the Specialty Beer of the house, stop in and have a sample. 3 Pounds Your Favorite Honey 1 Pound American 2-row Malt (Grain) ? Pound German Munich Malt (Grain) 1 Ounces Hersbrucker Hops (Bittering) 1 Ounce Hersbrucker Hops (Aroma) 1 Teaspoon Irish Moss 1 Vial Hefeweizen Ale Yeast (WLP300) Temp: 68-72 1 Vial Super High Gravity Yeast (WLP099) Temp: 69-74 ? Cup Corn Sugar (Priming) Place crushed American 2-row Malt and German Munich Malt in water and steep at 155 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove spent grains and add Malt Extract and Honey. Bring water to a boil. After 15 minutes, add 1 ounce of Hersbrucker hops. Add Irish Moss 30 minutes into the boil. Boil for 30 minutes longer, adding the last 1 ounce of Hersbrucker hops. Turn off heat, cool wort and pitch Hefeweizen Ale Yeast. (NOTE: that a blow-off hose should be used, an airlock will not be able to handle the amount of fermentation that this beer creates). Primary Ferment for 3 days at temperatures between 68 and 72 degrees. After 3 days of fermentation add Super High Gravity Yeast to Primary Fermenter. Primary Ferment at 69 to 74 degrees for for 7 additional days. Transfer to secondary fermenter. Secondary-ferment an additional 10 days. Be sure to rack or transfer beer every 10 days until ferment is complete at temperatures between 68 and 72 degrees. Total fermentation may take up to 2 months to complete. Bottle, using corn sugar. Age in bottle for 30 days.

unpredictable results. Not necessarily bad, but you have no way of knowing or controlling which yeasrt is doing what. Next, you can easily get 10-12% ABV with ale yeast. 3rd, _any_ priming you add, whether corn sugar, hioney, malt, etc., will raise the alcohol content, but by such a small amount it will be pretty much undetectable.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING NEW: OR SOMTHING I DON`T KNOW: read my post again and again and again and again