Brew UK Forum | General Brewing Discussions
Alcohol
I think I know the basics of how alcohol is made - sugar an yeast. However, I have a few questions:
1. If I increase the sugar without increasing the yeast in a recipe, will it make the drink stronger, or sweeter (or both).
2. Will increasing the amount of yeast increase the alcohol content (or not at all)
3. Will the type of yeast make a difference (I think I know the answer is yes, but not sure of details)
I am currently making ginger beer, following the recipe on here. I like my ginger beer to be quite fiery, strong and crisp (but not too dry). Can I ensure this happens?
Sorry for silly questions - I am new to this!
Cheers
Ian
Responses
Posted 11 months ago by Member
strength depends on how much sugar u put in. use about 2.5kg for 23 liters (including pulp) for about 4.5-5 % for your ginger beer. u will need to sweeten b4 drinkin. see thread 'ginger beer'. dont know about different yeast but u prob need to add yeast nutrient for GB as ingredients dont have them.
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
1) You need the correct amount of yeast for a given amount of sugar. Fortunately, the yeast knows this and propogates itself until the correct amount is formed. So, adding more sugar will slow the ferment until the extra yeast is formed and the result will be increased alcohol. There should be no increase in sweetness unless you are using specialist yeast which converts a known %age of sugar(attenuation: the yeast's ability to convert sugars to alcohol).
2) No. It will simply make the ferment start quicker but, if you have huge amounts of yeast, could add unwanted flavours.
3)Yes. Yeasts have several charcteristics, 95% of which you'll never need to know. The 2 you need to know about are 'attenuation' and 'floculation'. Attenuation is a measure of the yeast's ability to convert sugars to alcohol. Typically, yeasts are between 60% and 85% attenuative, meaning they will convert the proportion of sugar stated. ie: a 70% attenuative yeast will convert 70% of the sugars to alcohol....roughly. Floculation is the yeast's ability to 'drop out' after it's job is done. A highly floculative yeast gives a hard, compact layer on the bottom of bottles and typically a very clear and bright beer, while a low floculation gives a soft, easily disturbed layer and often requires filtration to clear the beer.
How do you make it sweeter? Not sure, but you could test it with a hydrometer and use Potassium Sorbate when the brew is at about 1.005 to stop the yeast working. Problem with this is, when you bottle it, the yeast won't be able to ferment the sugar to produce the Co2 which gives the fizz. Sweetening is probably the answer, but it has to be with a non-fermentable sweetner.
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
Just to add to point no 1 - if you add too much sugar then the yeast will need to reproduce more and more before it starts to munch on the sugar. This can cause different and also (possible) unwanted flavours as well as increasing the lag time, which would make the wort more prone to nastys gettin in there.
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
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