Creating a 'Simple' Mid Strength

[Taswoods]

Hi all,

I have been brewing from a can for about 3 years now. Switched from bottles to kegging earlier this year and everything has been going fine.
I use Morgans Australian Bitter cans, with 1kg Malt/Dextrose mix. Very simple.
As you can probably tell from this, I'm no beer connoisseur - I don't care for flavoursome craft beers. Just enjoy something cold, fizzy, bitter and alcoholic.

Enter my doctor with gentle warnings about 'cutting down on alcohol intake'

So, armed with only a simple understanding of the brewing process, I plan with my next batch to merely half the malt/dextrose amount in the fermenter.
I am hoping this will give me a beer with half the alcohol content. Problem solved?

I'm not too concerned about how this will impact flavour - I tend to be able to get used to any beer after drinking it for a while. I'm just wondering if I am missing something and this plan will fail disastrously?

Any input much appreciated.

PS. Yes, I could drink less 'full strength' beer, but I enjoy the 'drinking' part, hence my plan.

 

[Yuz]

Hi mate, I'm in the same boat, I try to keep the OG under 1.040 as I tend to drink in volumes (even tea) so in my case, less is more.
I've been steeping crystal grains to add to the flavour and keeping carb levels low - seems to turn out well
No dex / enhancers, only DME / LME.

 

[goatchop41]

It certainly won't half your ABV. If you only take out half of your dex/DME (dry malt extract), you're taking out less than half of your fermentables.
Assuming that you do a ferment volume of ~23L, and your yeast does a decent job to get you down to an FG of 1.008, you will only take your ABV from ~4.3% down to ~3.3-3.4%. Getting rid of the DME/dex all together will get you down to 2.5-2.6% (but I wouldn't recommend doing that, just a Morgans can by itself would be nasty).

If you want to drop the ABV, but keep the beer tasting palatable, I would get rid of the dextrose portion completely and just add 400-500g of DME - this will give you ~3-3.3% ABV, but will still stand the best chance of having some body and a bit of flavour from the DME.

 

[Taswoods]

Thanks for the replies folks. DME?

Edit: Scratch that - Just saw the definition above

 

[Grott]

Spot on goatchop41. Use 500gms of dry light malt extract or 500gms of the liquid. I do this with Coopers English Bitter, full of flavour and a great session ale at about 3.8%. I buy the dry light malt in bulk (5kg, cost effective and manageable)and weigh it out.

 

[Taswoods]

Spot on goatchop41. Use 500gms of dry light malt extract or 500gms of the liquid. I do this with Coopers English Bitter, full of flavour and a great session ale at about 3.8%. I buy the dry light malt in bulk (5kg, cost effective and manageable)and weigh it out.

Thank you - looks like I have a plan!

 

[Rod]

from the Coopers club , close to the commercial stuff

Coopers mild ale recipe

To 500 ml hot boiled water

add 13 grams Saaz hops

and steep for 15 minutes

add 2000ml boiled water to a boiler

add 700 g light dry malt

rest for 1 minute

add LIGHT PALE ALE can

add 2000 ml cold water

then hop solution

add to fermenter

fill to 25 litres

add yeast

you may like to change or fiddle with the hops

 

[Coldspace]

I'd also recommend ditching the kit yeast, and investing in say a low attenuation yeast such as white lab 002 English ale or as I've used before successfully on some low/mids 1968 English yeast.
These will drop your alc down more, possibly under 3% and retain some body and maltiness to combat the extra bitterness from the can ibu and the less fermentable additives you are using .

Will add to the cost alittle, but you could always havest the yeast from batch to batch and only buy it every so often.

Others with more yeast experience can add to this.

Cheers

 

[ianh]

Hi Taswoods

Looks as though you have already taken the first step, going from bottles to kegs which reduces the alcohol content when using CO2 for carbonation. Given you have been brewing for 3 years you should have the processes under control.

As other have said ditch the dextrose, does nothing for the beer except increases the alcohol content. Use a low attenuation yeast, Windsor was my go to dry yeast and Wyeast1469 liquid yeast.

Whilst you say you don't care about flavoursome craft beer, steeping grains can do a lot to improve a beer and allow for the production of different types of low strength beers milds, English Bitters etc. which I would suggest as a first step. Second step boiling hops. Then ditching the kits and going to extract brewing will improve the taste of the beers.

My spreadsheet which is pinned to Kits & Extracts Forum should help you going forward.