Brewing low alcohol beers

[Darkman]

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.

 

[Darkman]

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.

 

[wbosher]

Having some problems there Darkman

 

[Darkman]

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.

 

[Rurik]

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.

 

[paulmclaren11]

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!

 

[Darkman]

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.

 

[Darkman]

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.

 

[QldKev]

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!

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.

 

[Rurik]

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.

 

[r055c0]

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.