Low Alcohol Beer

[lucifer]

How does one go about brewing a very low alcohol content beer.

My father cannot drink full strenght beer, and has asked if i could brew him something with a very low alcohol content, he currently buys a brewed substance that tasts like beer(well so he says it dont taste like beer to me).

Im guessing i just use less sugar, but am not sure.

what is the lowest content you can get from a kit beer?

do they sell specific low alcohol brew kits?

 

[Doc]

I've never done it but two ideas jump to mind.

1. By a kit and don't add any other ingredients, just pitch your yeast.
2. Do a normal brew with kit and other adjuncts but add more water.

I'd imagine you are going for a 3.5% beer, so you should be looking for a starting SG of around 1.030 when you expect a terminal gravity of 1.010.

Cheers,
Doc

 

[kook]

I'd have to agree there. Brew up a generic 1.7kg or 1.8kg kit. Except, just add 18litres of water and nothing else. Pitch the yeast, and voila!

 

[Indy]

can't imagine that that could be too good :blink: *shudder*

i'm sure you can get some sort of sugar which doesn't produce alcohol...
(does it produce bubbles??? :unsure: )

i bet your local brew shop would know they'd have to get asked occasionally...

cbeers

 

[kook]

can't imagine that that could be too good :blink: *shudder*

Why?

It will taste the same, if not *better* than a kit and a kilo of dextrose.

 

[lucifer]

ok will try that then

thanks for the help.

BTW no way you can get it lower, i assume not as the sugars in the kit are ...... well in the kit.

 

[Doc]

Add more water.
How low 'low alcohol' do you want?

Cheers,
Doc

 

[PMyers]

Low Acohol Beer

Here is a recipe that came in first place in last years NSW State Championships.

1 x Morgans Australian Pilsner
500g Light Liquid Malt
300g Crystal Malt - Steeped for 25 minutes
12g Pride of Ringwood Hops - Dry Method
Standard 514 Yeast
Water up to 22 litres

This has a fairly low OG and a reasonably high FG. When I made this brew it ended up bang on 3%. Of course if you bottle it it will rise to 3.5%

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:

p.s. - I have copied this recipe to the Recipe's section to make it easier to find.

 

[lucifer]

How low 'low alcohol' do you want

well as low as you can get i suppose.


ohh and thanks Pmyers for the recipe

 

[Snow]

There is an archived article titled

Brew A Great Non-Alcoholic Beer
Oct, 1995 by John Naleszkiewicz

in the www.byo.com feature index. The methodology revolves around baking the wort for a period of time to evaporate the alcohol, then cooling and adding a little yeast prior to bottling. Gives you about 0.5% i think. I would even try dry hopping for a couple of days before bottling, because the heat would evaporate the hop aromas, too.

Good luck.

- Snow.

 

[Indy]

can't imagine that that could be too good :blink: *shudder*

Why?

It will taste the same, if not *better* than a kit and a kilo of dextrose.

hmmm, yeah good point, you could be right... (probably)
i just simply assumed we wouldn't go too good with it because seeing major breweries can't do it...

ie: make a light beer - that is the same as a normal beer only less alc... they all seem like '1 less' than a 'real beer'
maybe because they have really large quantities etc they might have a harder time keeping everything in the right mixes :unsure:
even distribtution of all the stuff in their things...

 

[PostModern]

i just simply assumed we wouldn't go too good with it because seeing major breweries can't do it...

Major breweries can't brew any beer well, but we can. So following your logic, a craft-brewed low-alc beer should taste better than the mass-produced stuff.

I like the idea of making a full strength then evaporating most of the alcohol that Snow posted. That should work a treat. You could even condense the steam and make some whisky or something

 

[Indy]

I like the idea of making a full strength then evaporating most of the alcohol that Snow posted. That should work a treat. You could even condense the steam and make some whisky or something

yeah, i've considered that for a couple of my disaster beers but it all seemed too hard at the time...

heh heh, we've gone from low alc to high alc
anyone know offhand an effective way of evaporating beer and containing the run off? etc?

 

[GSRman]

indy: erm, using a still?

 

[Indy]

indy: erm, using a still?

:lol: yeah, i know that... what i meant was a cheaper than ~$250 (however much it is, it's too much for me)

 

[GSRman]

well, you could keep an eye out for some chemistry set stuff... sometimes in boxes of glass tubes n crap (second hand) you could come across one... maybe.. but it probably wouldn't go to the speed you want...


and you dont want to condense everything that comes off.. some is methanol... and it tastes funny

 

[Doc]

This guy has some information on the subject.
Check it out here.

No- and Low-Alcohol Brewing
The topic of non- and low-alcohol brewing comes up occasionally on the HBD. Having been recently scolded by my doctor to reduce my alcohol intake, I've been exploring this topic myself and can report on what I've found.

Cheers,
Doc