"junkhunter" <junkman18@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:CF7be.370$Gd7.88@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:
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> Is it possible to make the alcohol content higher using the Beer
> Machine??
> The beer is good but seems to be low in alcohol.
>
> Thanks
>[/color]
Just add a bit more sugar, an extra 250g in the small model should
help, but figure out what percentage your kit is giving and how much
you should reasonably add, or someone else might suggest a figure that
isn't just a wild guess as to what might be about right.

Use a pure sugar and it shouldn't affect the taste at all while adding
some alcohol. Can someone tell me if table sugar is pure? Or is it
something in there that makes people so reluctant to use it in brewing?
You should be able to pick up a bag of dextrose anywhere that sells
home brew supplies anyway.

Note that if the alcohol goes too high the yeast won't cope and will
stop fermenting. Then you'll taste the unfernemted sugars. Too high
is somewhere around 6 or 7% as I understand it. The thing to remember
about the beer machine is that for the fermentation stage it's just a
small carboy as far as you're concerned, so anything you read on
homebrew information sites is going to apply once you adjust for size.

[url]http://www.howtobrew.com[/url] taught me a fair bit about the theory and
practice of what I was doing. No matter how simple to use your
equipment may be, it's nice to know just what's going on in there.

Apologies for things I've told you that you already know.
Abject apologies for things I've told you that are wrong, I'm sure the
nice people here will let us know about those.

peter