# Brewing low alcohol beers



## r055c0 (28/10/13)

I was watching a recent video episode of Basic Brewing () where James had put together a couple of very light beers (less than 2% abv) using Rye and Wheat, his reasoning being the rye adds a lot of mouthfeel so the brews would not taste too watery. I figured it would be nice to have some light beer around this summer instead of only drinking my usual brews that always seem to come in around 6%, so I'll be doing a small batch this week to see if it's something I'd like to brew a larger batch of.

*12L Batch - no chill - BIAB*
0.75kg Rye
0.75kg Wheat
10g EKG @ 60 min
15gEKG @ 0 min
US-05 yeast
Dry hop with more EKG depending on results of post ferment taste test

Beersmith tells me this will give me an OG of 1.025, FG of 1.005 and ABV of 2.5% with the bitterness sitting around 28 IBUs.

Has anyone else had a go at using rye in light beers? Or is there a light beer recipe you swear by? I've never been a fan of commercial light beers but I'm interested to have a play around and see if I can brew something I'd be happy to drink a couple of when I'm stuck with driving duties etc.


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## MartinOC (28/10/13)

'Sounds really "chewy" to me & probably rather sour.

No pale malt at all?

Don't forget that a lot will depend on your mashing temperature. Higher = more dextrins (mouthfeel), less fermentables.

You could always brew a high-gravity wort & ferment it to get all the lovely character inherent in "big" beers, then dilute it to your own tastes. A mate of mine won a place in Vicbrew a few years ago doing exactly that:

"Full-a-shite lite"

Batch size - 50 Litres (He's a juice-junky!)

9.8Kg Franklin Pale Malt
1Kg Flaked Barley
200g Medium Crystal (130 EBC).

Dough-in @ 77C
Conversion @ 72C for 1 hour
Sparge to collect 60 Litres.

Boil time - 45 minutes.
120g Tettnang pellets

Wyeast 1028 (London Ale)
OG - 1050
FG - 1020

Racked 35 litres of it into an 80L keg with 40L of pre-boiled water (equivalent to OG 1022/FG 1009, 1.7%ABV).

An easy-swilling beer when young, but really hit it's straps after 2 months @ 4C (but if it's a hot-weather swiller you're after, that's hardly a problem!).


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## mxd (28/10/13)

it would feel too bitter for me and too much rye, 4* did a 100% rye that was "interesting" 

I've got docs session lite in the fermenter at the moment 3.6% so I'll see how that goes (as I fell I need a session beer cause my 5.5% just seem to put me to bed at 9:30 to wake at at 3am and not getting back too sleep  )


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## DUANNE (28/10/13)

why would it be sour? 


MartinOC said:


> 'Sounds really "chewy" to me & probably rather sour.
> 
> No pale malt at all?
> 
> ...


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## RdeVjun (28/10/13)

Have a ~2% ABV variant* of Morrison Mild on tap, it has Caramel Rye in it which is a specialty malt but no reason why you couldn't subtitute some base malt for rye malt if you wished. It is a Dark Mild, I mashed higher (70C) with this current batch and increased the spec malts by about 10%, but IMO the key is using a low- attenuating yeast. You're in luck at the moment if you like English- Wyeast 1768PC it is in season and is just superb in this recipe.

BTW, many thanks again to Rowy for the Morrison Mild recipe! :beerbang:

* As an aside, annoyed this current one isn't the batch that I entered in our state comp here in sunny Queensland, I'm reasonably sure it would have done even better than the 4th & Bronze that a previous batch earned, not to mention the 1st at BABB Annual.


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## r055c0 (28/10/13)

MartinOC I don't mind a bit of sour in my summer swillers, as long as it's not too overpowering and served cold. I like the idea of brewing something big then splitting some off to dilute down to a light beer, will give that a go with my next pale ale and see how it turns out, I've got a few little glass 5L demijohns lying about that would do the trick.

mxd my APA usually sits around 35 IBUs and I enjoy that level of bitterness so I figured 28 would not be too much, I have been a little worried about the lack of malt not balancing the bitterness so might back it off a little when I actually brew this (or I'll add extra hops because I'll have been drinking beforehand and it will seem like a good idea at the time...)

RdeVjun that recipe looks nice, will keep it in mind. I was thinking of using US-05 for this one it won't have much bearing on the taste, I'll probably try again with a couple of different yeasts in future batches if I feel it will bring something to the table (I do love a saison, hmm....)


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## MartinOC (28/10/13)

BEERHOG said:


> why would it be sour?


Purely based-on the fact that it's all rye & wheat. I'm not saying a-la Rodenbach Grand-Cru sour. As the OP has stated above, he doesn't mind a bit of sour, so it's up to him. It was just my 2c'-worth.


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## brewtas (28/10/13)

ro55c0 said:


> mxd my APA usually sits around 35 IBUs and I enjoy that level of bitterness so I figured 28 would not be too much, I have been a little worried about the lack of malt not balancing the bitterness so might back it off a little when I actually brew this (or I'll add extra hops because I'll have been drinking beforehand and it will seem like a good idea at the time...)


The issue isn't the absolute number of IBUs but the relationship between the IBUs, OG and FG. The Balance Value formula (used in Brewmate I think) reckons that with 28 IBUs your recipe will have the hop balance of an IIPA. Around 17 IBUs will give you something balanced more like a pale ale. 

I like the idea of the beer though, interested to hear how it turns out.


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## r055c0 (28/10/13)

brewtas that Balance Value Formula sounds like something I need to consider, thanks for the heads up, I'll do some recalculating with that in mind. I'm excited about this beer, it's a byproduct of my attempt at a sierra nevada ruthless rye IPA, I always get a kilo or so extra of each malt when I'm ordering so I can have a play with them in other brews and the idea of using rye seemed like a cool idea as I've never used it before.


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## brewtas (28/10/13)

Yeah, it's particularly useful for lower gravity beers where the FG is fairly low. It means there's less to balance the bitterness with. I found out about this when I brewed a 3.5% 'Baby IPA' kind of thing and at 35 IBUs, it nearly melted my face off.


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## r055c0 (28/10/13)

Nicked the following info from a Beersmith blog entry:

To calculate the bitterness ratio we start with the number of international bitterness units or IBUs. For example, lets say we start with a beer that has 30 IBUs. We then take the original gravity of the beer (for example 1.048), take the fractional portion (0.048) and multiply by 1000 to get the number of gravity points. In this example 1.048 would simply be 48 points. Now we take 30 IBUs and divide by 48 points to get a bitterness ration of 0.63.

To calculate your target average style BU:GU ration, determine the average IBUs for the style guide and divide by the average OG points for the style. I’ve calculated the bitterness ratio for a few popular styles here from the 2008 guidelines:

American Amber: 0.619
Bohemian Pilsner: 0.800
Oktoberfest/Marzen: 0.449
Traditional Bock: 0.346
Blonde Ale: 0.467
California Common: 0.735
Ordinary Bitters: 0.833
American Pale Ale: 0.714
Brown Porter: 0.576
Dry Irish Stout: 0.872
English IPA: 0.800
Weizen/Weissbier: 0.240
Belgian Trippel: 0.375


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## r055c0 (28/10/13)

Based on that I'm changing my target IBU to 15 which will bring me near an american amber ale style. Thanks for the pickup there brewtas, I'd have been able to strip paint with my original recipe


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## pk.sax (28/10/13)

I believe the trick is late hops. Subtler hops like motueka late in the boil with a low gravity wort are wonderful. Also galaxy et all, passionfruity hops like Amarillo too, measured hits at flameout with a low alc beer is nice. Make sure to mash rather high to get a dextrinous wort. You could ferment with a saison yeast to get that uniquely slightly spicy and not bad on the mouthfeel work the saison yeast does.


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## Pat Casey (29/10/13)

Alternatively, mash low, lots of caramel malt and an attenuative yeast.

Have a 3%er on in the shop at the moment from a demo several weeks back. 2700 g ale malt, 500 g crystal malt, mashed at 63-64 deg, about 20 IBU of Target and Fuggles, fermented with Mangrove Jack British Ale yeast - fairly attenuative. Drinking nicely.

The rye sounds interesting. For about 20 litres say 1700 rye malt, 1000 pils, 500 CaraHell(too much CaraPils gets too caramelly)mash at 63/64 and ferment with Wyeast 1007 German Ale/Safale K-97/Morgans Wheat Beer yeast - they're all the same. Hop it to about 20 with say a little bit of Galaxy and finish with Hallertau or Tettnang. Rye malt at 60% - 70% gives a nice lemony character.

Pat


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## punkin (29/10/13)

mxd said:


> (as I fell I need a session beer cause my 5.5% just seem to put me to bed at 9:30 to wake at at 3am and not getting back too sleep  )



You don't say?


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## stm (29/10/13)

Yeah, I'm also a big fan of milds - mid threes in terms of ABV is easily achievable without a lot of effort but still with lots of flavour and body in the end product. Mash high, lots of crystal and less attenuative yeast (almost the opposite of Pat's suggestion but that's the great thing about home brewing!). Don't go over board on the hops. Lots of recipes for milds out there; I might have to give that Morrison a go myself some time soon.


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## black_labb (29/10/13)

My technique for brewing low alcohol versions of other beers is to cut out much of the base malt and replace it with smaller amounts of specialty malts.

To bring it down in alcohol you would take out some base malt, and add replace the flavour, sweetness and body that you are missing due to the lack of base malt. The trick is to choose spec malts that replace the flavours missing from the lack of base malt or ones that work well with the beer without standing out as strong flavours themselves. Sweetness comes from unfermentable sugars and melanoidens, so crystal malts, darker base malts and kilned spec malts (melanoiden, biscuit etc) work well to get the sweetness. Body comes from dextrins (crystal malts, mashing high and some base malts) or protein (rye, oats, wheat,pearl barley). I'd often reduce the bittering hops a bit and keep the flavour/aroma hops the same. I don't worry about matching colour, but at the same time I don't try to add dark crystals or dark spec grains. They would add more flavour than they do body or sweetness which isn't the aim here.

So lets say an english IPA that was originally

5.5kg marris otter
300g medium crystal

challenger @ 60 mins to 30ibu
challenger @15 mins to 20ibu
challenger @5 mins to 5 ibu

=55 ibu

To bring it down in alcohol you would take out some base malt, and add replace the flavour and dextrins that you are missing due to the lack of base malt. The trick is to choose spec malts that replace the flavours missing from the lack of base malt or ones that work well with the beer without standing out as strong flavours themselves. Light crystals, more flavoursome base malts, spec malts and high protein malts/adjuncts(rye, wheat, oats, pearl barley etc.) are all good options.

A rough version would be the following

2.5kg marris otter (reduced by 3kg)
300g biscuit for extra malt flavour similar to marris otter
400g golden naked oats for dextrins and protein for extra body. it also adds a nice nutty flavour and some sweetness(GNO is a light-med crystal made from oats)
300g med crystal (from original recipe)

challenger @ 60mins to 15 IBU
challenger @ 15mins to 20 ibu
challenger @ 5mins to 5 ibu

=40ibu

I'd also mash higher than normal, so say 69 instead of 65 for more dextrins.

Of course this won't be the same as the original recipe, but it will be a nice beer at around half the alcohol when you factor in the lower attnuation % (higher mash temp and quite a bit of crystal). you could also replace some base malt with rye which works well with hoppy beers and provides a lot of body. It will change the beer a fair amount, but that isn't neccesarily a bad thing.


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## r055c0 (29/10/13)

thanks black_labb, thats quite the essay, some really great info there


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## r055c0 (31/10/13)

Brewed this one yesterday arvo, first time in ages I've done a brew on the stovetop so I had to guess a few of the volumes. Miscalculated the boil off by quite a ways so ended up with 12L of wort at 1.018, not upset by this as it will still give me a light beer around 1.7%. The colour is about 2EBC. If the taste is ok I'll have another go with an adjusted boil off % and see if I can get closer to 1.025.

Made dog biscuits with the spent grain, the pups approve.


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## Rurik (31/10/13)

Last summer I brewed a 3.5% ale using the Wyerman Ale Malt and a bit of white sugar. I cannot find my notes right now but it was 90% malt and 10% sugar, bittered with Tetnanger to 15 IBU's and 5gms in the last 10 min and fermented with US05. It was nice, light and refreshing but with enough flavour for interest. The Wyerman malt made a big difference.


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## Darkman (1/11/13)

Rurik said:


> Last summer I brewed a 3.5% ale using the Wyerman Ale Malt and a bit of white sugar. I cannot find my notes right now but it was 90% malt and 10% sugar, bittered with Tetnanger to 15 IBU's and 5gms in the last 10 min and fermented with US05. It was nice, light and refreshing but with enough flavour for interest. The Wyerman malt made a big difference.


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## Darkman (1/11/13)

Rurik said:


> Last summer I brewed a 3.5% ale using the Wyerman Ale Malt and a bit of white sugar. I cannot find my notes right now but it was 90% malt and 10% sugar, bittered with Tetnanger to 15 IBU's and 5gms in the last 10 min and fermented with US05. It was nice, light and refreshing but with enough flavour for interest. The Wyerman malt made a big difference.


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## wbosher (1/11/13)

Having some problems there Darkman


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## Darkman (1/11/13)

I'm not sure about adding sugar as this will only lighten the body of your beer and contribute no flavour. Black Labb has given you some great advice. The only thing I could add to his advice is to use a low attenuating yeast like wIndsor so you FG finishes higher.


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## Rurik (1/11/13)

Darkman said:


> I'm not sure about adding sugar as this will only lighten the body of your beer and contribute no flavour.


That is the point of using the sugar. The malt profile stands by itself but if you don't have a high enough level of attenuation you will be left with a cloying sweet mess that does not taste good. Sort of like drinking cordial that has been mixed up to strong, yes it tastes like lemon but some of the more subtle flavours are missed. 

Increasing your FG does not necessarily lead to a more complex flavour profile.


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## paulmclaren11 (1/11/13)

I have been trying a few session beer recipes of late and I have found, as already stated, replacing base malt with malts such as Munich/Vienna with crystal malts will give you that malty backbone that you need when decreasing the ABV.

My current Mid APA which I am really happy with at 3.8% (Roughly 50% base Pale ale malt, 30% Munich 1 and the rest Wheat and Crystal) is hopped from 15 mins to go in the boil to flameout and dry hop to give me both my flavour and desired bitterness really adds balanced hoppy goodness. I used Saf Ale US05 and mashed at 68c.

This hopping schedule makes a huge difference IMO (as well as the mash temp etc) to the flavour you get and need in a lower ABV beer.

I have to say thanks to Dr Smurto for this tip!


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## Darkman (4/11/13)

Rurik said:


> That is the point of using the sugar. The malt profile stands by itself but if you don't have a high enough level of attenuation you will be left with a cloying sweet mess that does not taste good. Sort of like drinking cordial that has been mixed up to strong, yes it tastes like lemon but some of the more subtle flavours are missed.
> 
> Increasing your FG does not necessarily lead to a more complex flavour profile.


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## Darkman (4/11/13)

Rurik said:


> That is the point of using the sugar. The malt profile stands by itself but if you don't have a high enough level of attenuation you will be left with a cloying sweet mess that does not taste good. Sort of like drinking cordial that has been mixed up to strong, yes it tastes like lemon but some of the more subtle flavours are missed.
> 
> Increasing your FG does not necessarily lead to a more complex flavour profile.


The whole point of striving for higher FG is to give the beer the mouthfeel of a full strength beer. I don't think i even mentioned complexity. That last 3% alc beer I made had a fair bit on Munich and various crystals, more than I would use in a full strength beer and it finished at 1.010 using Windsor yeast and was far from cloying. I've used sugar(rice) in many of my pils to dry then out a bit. I would never consider adding it to a light beer unless I was after light bodied beer.


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## QldKev (4/11/13)

paulmclaren11 said:


> I have been trying a few session beer recipes of late and I have found, as already stated, replacing base malt with malts such as Munich/Vienna with crystal malts will give you that malty backbone that you need when decreasing the ABV.
> 
> My current Mid APA which I am really happy with at 3.8% (Roughly 50% base Pale ale malt, 30% Munich 1 and the rest Wheat and Crystal) is hopped from 15 mins to go in the boil to flameout and dry hop to give me both my flavour and desired bitterness really adds balanced hoppy goodness. I used Saf Ale US05 and mashed at 68c.
> 
> ...



The malt bill is similar to my house MIDAPA that I've been making for a few years, aim for high 3% abv (depends on what I feel like at the time, but 3.6 to 4.0 is the norm), 3% crystal, 33% munich II, rest your favorite ale. I find with the amount of munich in it I don't need to get too aggressive with the mash temps. With the munich I still hop it pretty heavy with Cascade.


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## Rurik (4/11/13)

Darkman said:


> The whole point of striving for higher FG is to give the beer the mouthfeel of a full strength beer. I don't think i even mentioned complexity. That last 3% alc beer I made had a fair bit on Munich and various crystals, more than I would use in a full strength beer and it finished at 1.010 using Windsor yeast and was far from cloying. I've used sugar(rice) in many of my pils to dry then out a bit. I would never consider adding it to a light beer unless I was after light bodied beer.



I get what you mean by higher FG but that does not necessary equal a better taste as you seem to be implying. You don't think that complexity of flavour contributes to a better tasting low alcohol beer? That some how it is totally dictated by FG? The answer is of course not, beer flavour is contributed by many things. The point is that just because one beer has a lower FG than another does not make it less of a drinking experience. As an example of the recipe I posted has a clean finishing complex malt flavour that will entertain the most beer drinkers but does not over power any other of the desirable flavours. In other words it produces a low alcohol beer that is full of complex flavour despite the low FG.


This however is just my experience with this particular recipe which is obviously secondary to yours.


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## r055c0 (12/11/13)

I bottled this one last night, FG was 1.004 giving me about 1.9% abv. I ended up dry hopping with 10g of cascade late last week as the aroma was a bit flat. Flavour wise it's not bad, needs a little something more but as a starting point I'm really happy with it. I'll be brewing version 2 tomorrow night, this time with 5% simpsons crystal medium, and I'll be swapping all the hops out for cascade with 2.5g @60 for bittering a 15g flameout addition for flavour, will probably dry hop with another 10g again.


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