I can't get ABV above 10%!

[ThatBroadcasterGuy]

I've tried to fulfill the Sky's The Limit job at least four times. The requirements are:

- Batch Size is Large
- ABV is at least 10%
- IBU is at least 100
- Carbonation is at least 4

I'm not worrying about the bonus requirement. For some reason I cannot get the ABV to be above 10% even if I use the yeast with the highest attenuation and have the wort ferment for the standard 15 days. I always end up with an ABV of around 8%. I can fulfill the other three requirements easily but the ABV req is making me rip my hair out. This is beyond frustrating. Can someone help me?

[DJHonore]

You need more fermentable sugar during the fermentation stage and make sure the fermentation container stays within the yeast's working temp range. do that and you can get ABV as high as 25+% if you use High Newton. Example: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892965448


High Newton's range tops out at 68-69 Fahrenheit, a heat mat can maintain this quite easily

[DJHonore]

Also might want to have a look at the yeast's alcohol tolerance

[ThatBroadcasterGuy]

Originally posted by DJHonore:

You need more fermentable sugar during the fermentation stage and make sure the fermentation container stays within the yeast's working temp range. do that and you can get ABV as high as 25+% if you use High Newton. Example: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892965448


High Newton's range tops out at 68-69 Fahrenheit, a heat mat can maintain this quite easily

I've been using High Newton yeast as it's the most alcohol resistant one I have. But as I mentioned before I can never get the ABV above 10%. It always ends up at 8% or so no matter what I try. My latest attempt ended up at 8.92% ABV. Adding more yeast and letting it ferment for two more weeks did not make any difference. I'm using the Belgian IPA recipe, with changes to fit the job reqs, if that matters at all.

[DJHonore]

Originally posted by ThatBroadcasterGuy:

Originally posted by DJHonore:

You need more fermentable sugar during the fermentation stage and make sure the fermentation container stays within the yeast's working temp range. do that and you can get ABV as high as 25+% if you use High Newton. Example: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892965448


High Newton's range tops out at 68-69 Fahrenheit, a heat mat can maintain this quite easily

I've been using High Newton yeast as it's the most alcohol resistant one I have. But as I mentioned before I can never get the ABV above 10%. It always ends up at 8% or so no matter what I try. My latest attempt ended up at 8.92% ABV. Adding more yeast and letting it ferment for two more weeks did not make any difference. I'm using the Belgian IPA recipe, with changes to fit the job reqs, if that matters at all.

Try fermenting a week at a time and adding in corn sugar in between. Corn Sugar has the highest usability of any sugar in the game. Also make sure the fermentation container is within working temperature on a heat mat or similar

[DJHonore]

Hell, I did it on stream

[CheesybisquitFTW]

I haven't gotten this far into the game, but pure out of speculation have you tried double (or even triple) yeasting your beer?

[Raine_e_Day]

A good way to get a beer above 10% would be to use a reiterated mash. Heat the water up, pour it onto the grain as usual but when you collect the wort clean out the mash tun and put a second lot of grain in it. Heat the wort up to the same temperature you do the initial water and then pour it over the grain, and mash in for another 60 mins as normal. It should give you a much higher starting gravity and with the right yeast have you touching near 15%

[ಠ_ಠ]

Originally posted by CheesybisquitFTW:

I haven't gotten this far into the game, but pure out of speculation have you tried double (or even triple) yeasting your beer?

More yeast != more alcohol. The amount of yeast doesn't effect the amount of alcohol, except that stressed colonies can have difficulty finishing fermentation.

I've made beers IRL at 13%+ with just a few grams of dry yeast (Lallemand Voss Kveik is a beast). Potential alcohol is a function of fermentable sugars, not number of yeast cells. For a 10%+ beer you want a starting gravity in excess of 1.090 (depends on the final gravity / attenuation). For example, a starting gravity of 1.100 and a finishing gravity of 1.020 would yield 10.5% abv (pretty standard gravity range for a big imperial stout). If you can hit 1.110 then you should break 10% easily. You can do this with a very thick mash, or by adding a fermtable sugar to the wort, such as honey, or corn sugar. You can even add liquid malt extract at the beginning of the boil, though you may need to extend the boil duration to hit the correct volume and gravity.

[Jim]

For future reference, just double the amount of grains at the mash if you want to make a beer with absurdly high ABV. Make sure the yeast you are using then has the capability to get the % you want. "High Newton" will never fail as long as it has enough sugar to work with.

More grains in mash = more sugar.

[Mr432scott]

You could also try boiling off some water to increase you ABV

[legonleon]

I really hope this game will receive "Ice brewing" I want to make even stronger beer.