Full Flavoured Light Beer

[McCraggen]

G'day,

Here is my dilema, to make a full flavoured drinkable 2.5-3.5% abv beer, sounds easy but with only half the malt of my usual recipe, its going to be a challange.

Heres some questions:

1. adding more hops to mask some lack of character?
2. do a beer style traditionally light in body, eg hefe-weizen?
3. what sort of volume to malt ratio would be good for the afformentioned abv?

Cheers n Beers.

 

[Cube]

Butters, calling butters to thread 30521

I have been making two stroke beers for the last four brews now. 500~600 LDME only and about 20 grms more hops than I usually use. They were a bit 'thin' but still very nice to drink over summer. Head is good.

To get a thicker beer, and more head, steep 100 odd grms of grain of your choice. It will improve the beer 100%.

EDIT: I brew APA's and use US05.

 

[Swinging Beef]

G'day,
Here is my dilema, to make a full flavoured drinkable 2.5-3.5% abv beer, sounds easy but with only half the malt of my usual recipe, its going to be a challange.
Heres some questions:
1. adding more hops to mask some lack of character?
2. do a beer style traditionally light in body, eg hefe-weizen?
3. what sort of volume to malt ratio would be good for the afformentioned abv?
Cheers n Beers.

Try to make an english styled mild ale and go malt over hops.
Can of Coopers Dark... 1.7kg
500 - 1000 g dry wheat extract
15g fuggles for 3 days in the 2ndary

The 500 - 1kg of wheat extract will provide extra body and an alcohol level in your 23 litres between 2.5 and 3.5% depending how much you throw in.
Extra hops in the 2ndary so you have something to look forward to.


I have made two english mild now.. and Im not sure I understand why they exist. If you want less alcohol in your system.. drink less beer.

 

[petesbrew]

Try to make an english styled mild ale and go malt over hops.
Can of Coopers Dark... 1.7kg
500 - 1000 g dry wheat extract
15g fuggles for 3 days in the 2ndary

The 500 - 1kg of wheat extract will provide extra body and an alcohol level in your 23 litres between 2.5 and 3.5% depending how much you throw in.
Extra hops in the 2ndary so you have something to look forward to.


I have made two english mild now.. and Im not sure I understand why they exist. If you want less alcohol in your system.. drink less beer.

Yeah, but sometimes you want 2 beers instead of one!

I'm planning on knocking up a low-midstrength APA this week.
Coopers Aussie Pale Ale
1kg LLME
100g Crystal
Cascade - open to suggestions on times, but probably will just be a quick boil.
US-56

 

[buttersd70]

Beefs suggestion is good (but go with the 500g)...
Alternatively...

Any recipe you use that currently has a combination of malt/dex/and or maltodextrin. Leave it as is, but just dump the dextrose. Better still, if it has maltodextrin, dump that too, and make it up with a steep of 100-150g of carapils. Leave any other grain it might have, or hops, the same. Done.

slightly OT, Cube, can you forward the PM I sent you on this subject back to me? I lost the sent one in an inbox clean up gone wrong, and might edit it into an article...

 

[jonocarroll]

Here is my dilema, to make a full flavoured drinkable 2.5-3.5% abv beer, sounds easy but with only half the malt of my usual recipe, its going to be a challange.

Aaaarrgggh!!!!

S: (n) dilemma, quandary (state of uncertainty or perplexity especially as requiring a choice between equally unfavorable options)

Dammit.

 

[litre_o_cola]

Yeah, but sometimes you want 2 beers instead of one!

I'm planning on knocking up a low-midstrength APA this week.
Coopers Aussie Pale Ale
1kg LLME
100g Crystal
Cascade - open to suggestions on times, but probably will just be a quick boil.
US-56

I did a similar a week or so ago.

Coopers Aussie Pale Ale
1Kg LDME
100g Crystal
20g Cascade @ 30min
20g Cascade @ 15min
10g Cascade @ 0min
US-05

OG 1044
FG 1012


Crashed it on Saturday will bottle tomorrow.

Smells nice can't wait to have a taste.

Back to the thread +1 on Butters suggestion...... again

 

[petesbrew]

I did a similar a week or so ago.

Coopers Aussie Pale Ale
1Kg LDME
100g Crystal
20g Cascade @ 30min
20g Cascade @ 15min
10g Cascade @ 0min
US-05

OG 1044
FG 1012


Crashed it on Saturday will bottle tomorrow.

Smells nice can't wait to have a taste.

Back to the thread +1 on Butters suggestion...... again

Looks great. Hoping to cook it up tonight. Cheers!

 

[Adamt]

Dammit.

It's "damn it" if you're going to be pedantic.

Being a spelling, grammar, and proper-use-of-word pedant on an Internet forum is as pointless as a Jehova's Witness walking down Hindley Street on a Saturday night trying to convert people.

 

[Cube]

slightly OT, Cube, can you forward the PM I sent you on this subject back to me? I lost the sent one in an inbox clean up gone wrong, and might edit it into an article...

Done.

It's a great topic and what I've made nobody complains or even suggests it's a two stroke beer. Myself, will never make full strength beer in the foreseeable future.

 

[reviled]

I have made two english mild now.. and Im not sure I understand why they exist. If you want less alcohol in your system.. drink less beer.

Doesnt a mild have something to do with WWII and the brit government being stingy to brewery's with ingrediants?? Or so ive been told?? :unsure:

And I love 2-3% beers, sometimes I feel like too much of a pisshead if I get home from work and down 3 or 4 5-6% beers, much better if I can halve the alcohol consumption but still be able to enjoy the normal amount of beers, and without compromising flavour :beerbang:

 

[buttersd70]

And when being pedantic, one must remember the most important rule; spell the word in question correctly. "it's not a dilemma (sic), it's just a problem". I don't know about you, but I speak 'Er English. The Queens English. (albeit with a tyke accent :huh: )

Anyway, back ON topic....

here is the slightly longer explanation about cutting back the dextrose to give lower ABV. In the examples given, I was talking about a recipe that originally was 1kit, 500g dex, 500g malt, and some hops.....

Probably the easiest mid strength recipes come from known and trusted recipes that contain a portion of dextrose, It's actually easier than trying to rework an all malt recipe.

Given that dex only contributes alcohol, and not flavour, by reducing the dex portion in the recipe, all you will basically reduce is the alcohol itself....which won't effect the flavour to a massive degree, (unless it's a big shift). So if the bitterness and flavour is OK with this recipe as-is, it should be very similar if you drop the dex entirely. As the malt portion is staying the same, and the hops are staying the same, the bitterness should also stay (pretty much) the same.....because the malt and hops are staying in proportion to each other. wink.gif So it should be good.

So for a 23L batch, instead of 1039 OG, you would be looking at 1031. FG should come in reasonably similar-ish to the original, even with the lower OG (dex is aprox 92% fermentable, so it does leave some small amount of body. But as the one without dex will have less alcohol, which is less dense than water, it evens itself out roughly.) Might have a slight shift in fg of a point or 2 either way, but nothing to be concerned with imo.

Assuming that you normally finish at about 1010, and it finishes the same,
1039/1010= 3.8% + bottle condition (4.2%)
1031/1010 = 2.75% + bottle condition. (3.15%)

If its bottled and carbed to 2.5vol CO2, that would gain roughly 0.4% during carbonation.

 

[muckey]

certainly agree with you Cube.

It's really nice to be able to have a few beers without getting totally ratfaced.

I know you fellas have been discussing extract here but I've gotta say Butter's jump mash is a bewdy

 

[jonocarroll]

It's "damn it" if you're going to be pedantic.

Being a spelling, grammar, and proper-use-of-word pedant on an Internet forum is as pointless as a Jehova's Witness walking down Hindley Street on a Saturday night trying to convert people.

"Dammit" as in "Sammiches"... Colloquialised versions are just valid enough. Just like how I let "decimate" get through, despite not being used to mean 'reduced by 10%'.

If no-one on the 'nets keeps the grammar and English in check, we'll have apostrophes and semicolons flying all over the place!

And when being pedantic, one must remember the most important rule; spell the word in question correctly. "it's not a dilemma (sic), it's just a problem". I don't know about you, but I speak 'Er English. The Queens English. (albeit with a tyke accent :huh: )

:blink: ??? Did I done spelled it rongly?

Sorry for the off-topic derailing. My bad... I guess.

 

[petesbrew]

"Dammit" as in "Sammiches"... Colloquialised versions are just valid enough. Just like how I let "decimate" get through, despite not being used to mean 'reduced by 10%'.

If no-one on the 'nets keeps the grammar and English in check, we'll have apostrophes and semicolons flying all over the place!


:blink: ??? Did I done spelled it rongly?

Sorry for the off-topic derailing. My bad... I guess.

Nah, it's always fun to have an english lesson/debate/bitch-fight on the forum. :beer:
And who else will correct those posters who type their epic brewday adventures in one long 56-line paragraph?
Reading that makes my head hurt.

 

[litre_o_cola]

hmmmmm, I like beer B)

 

[brettprevans]

why not pinch Doc's recipe
for a light beer.

ignore the pale malt and use pale malt extract. say 1.5kg for 21L.
wey dark wheat can be steeped if im not mistaken. or sub for some wheat and a little dark malt extract.
then use the same hops schedule and yeasts.
OG1024, FG 006, 2.9%

 

[boingk]

I'd put a punt in for the Coopers PA recipe clone thats floating around on the DB. Basically sub the JW Ale for extract and drop the 650g of sugar.

- boingk

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I speak 'Er English. The Queens English. (albeit with a tyke accent :huh: )

possessive noun missing apostrophe

my words deliberately missing all capitols and punctuation because I would probably get it wrong and i have bad grammar

 

[buttersd70]

ooooh, you are awful! But i likes ya.