Alcohol Content in Stout based Root Beer recipe

Brewmaster5150 said:

I just finally brewed my Real Root Beer batch I found at the byo website and it looks to be fermenting very nicely.  The recipe calls for 3 pounds of dry malt extract, a half pound of unsulphured molasses, and of course the natural sugars from the partial mash side the wort.  I know that the airlock is not any way to measure the amount of alcohol being made but just to get a visual my "S" shaped airlock at 12 hours after pitching yeast was at 2-3 bubbles a second and now 4 days later is at 5 bubbles a minute very consistently for the last two days.  I have never made a batch where sparging was called for but I think I did it right.  Cooked the freshly crushed malt at 155 degrees with 1 gallon for an hour then sparged with 1.5 gallons at 170 degrees.  I hopped at the beginning of boil and 20 minutes in as my own personal touch.  After boiling that with another 1 gallon of water, I tea-bagged the spice combination while cooling, pitched yeast pack at 72 degrees and topped off with another two gallons of water.  I would like to add some vanilla extract to the batch for taste.  Also I want to try to raise the alcohol content a bit but not to over 7%.  Unfortunately my hydrometer got smashed and I didn't take an initial reading.  I'm going to add a whole cup of strained spice tea (smells exactly like root beer) at the same time I add the corn sugar and bottle.  So here are my questions:

1 - Is there any way to measure my alcohol content without an initial wort hydrometer reading?
2 - When should I add the vanilla extract (1 tablespoon) for taste?
3 - Any ideas on how to raise alcohol content a bit?
4 - Lastly I have yeast nutrient but it's 10 years old... can I still use it?

So far al you have been a HUGE help.  I haven't brewed for 10 years but I'm all about it now thanks to the encouragement and non-stop feedback on this site.  Thanks and cheers to all of you brewing out there.

Being of innovation and ultimately leading to reward, brewing feels like my American birthright.  -BM5150

Let us know how it turns out. That was too much molasses for my taste. Otherwise pretty good. Smells like root beer, finishes like a porter/stout.

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