Low to no alcohol beer.

[2much2spend]

Just would like to know he's anyone tried or successfully done a beer low in booze like <2% or even no alcohol.

I was thinking of a very light body, say pale malt , wheat and layer a few crystal malts and a hi mash temp.

I've had some really great light pale ales. Birbecks the captain@ 2.9% and stones levitation is good also.
Looking at a pale ale style of course.
Anyone got some ideas?

 

[davedoran]

Dr Smurtos Light Amber Ale should be a good place to start.

Ive being meaning to brew it for a while. Its an amber but a good place to start if you wanna sub out some of the darker malts to make a pale ale.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Mash high and go easy on the hopps.

 

[Dave70]

Clone this and perhaps wind it back a little.

As far as low / mid strength stuff goes, I dont mind it.

 

[TheWiggman]

Haha, good suggestion Dave. "Simply brew a beer like this well regarded beer made by one of Australia's most respected breweries. Just wind it back".

Easy!

 

[Not For Horses]

OK you've inspired me.
I might brew a light tonight.

10L batch

1000g Ale malt
500g Vienna
300g Flaked Barley
150g Crystal120
50g Light Roast Barley

Mash at 69c for 30min
72 rest (not sure if this is necessary with a 69c mash but it is my go to schedule)
Mashout

30min boil with Ella at 30 and 0

Ringwood Ale in half, Ardennes in the other.

OG1.035 FG1.014 20IBU 2.8%ABV

 

[Lecterfan]

Lowest drinkable I got after 4 attempts was around %2.8 (lower than that and they suffered noticeably – my measure for this is the fact that the keg is still half full after about 10 weeks)…I intended to implement a number of strategies for zero alc but it is simply easier to buy the zero stuff.

I found I preferred higher OG and FG beers than lower OG beers. So 1.040ish-1.018ish was better (for my tastes) than 1.035-1.012 for example. Darker malty beers work well going from 1.045-1.022. MJ Newcastle dark yeast was good for lower alc beers with a good body and interesting malt profile.

 

[n87]

there are a few topics/articles around regarding this. but they would brew a normal beer, then 'boil' off the alcohol before bottleing.
went something like this

make beer
put in large pot
heat to ~60C for ~30 mins
let cool
add yeast and sugar to bottle OR
keg

some did experiments where they neutered 1/2 a batch and tasted beside each other, and there was not much of a difference.

this way apparently, you get the full taste of a brewed beer... without the alcohol.

planning on doing this myself at some stage, if only for curiosity.

 

[Dave70]

Haha, good suggestion Dave. "Simply brew a beer like this well regarded beer made by one of Australia's most respected breweries. Just wind it back".

Easy!

Yup.

KISS

The principle, not the band.

 

[Not For Horses]

I'm working on the philosophy of lowering the base malt but keeping the spec grains close to full strength recipes.
So in my full strength recipe I would use about 200g of crystal and 75g of roast barley.
The percentages of spec grains are higher in the low strength but hopefully the flavour will be close to the original.
Plus I already the kilo of base malt sitting there lonely in a little bag.

 

[TheWiggman]

If going for genuine low-alcohol beers (i.e. 0.1%) it's necessary to use vaccuum distillation, correct? So if OP is after a 'zero' alcohol beer then I don't think this is achievable with standard home brew kit. That recipe looks good though Not For Horses.

 

[Dave70]

there are a few topics/articles around regarding this. but they would brew a normal beer, then 'boil' off the alcohol before bottleing.
went something like this

make beer
put in large pot
heat to ~60C for ~30 mins
let cool
add yeast and sugar to bottle OR
keg

some did experiments where they neutered 1/2 a batch and tasted beside each other, and there was not much of a difference.

this way apparently, you get the full taste of a brewed beer ... without the alcohol.

planning on doing this myself at some stage, if only for curiosity.

And, I'd wager...without the hops.

 

[n87]

And, I'd wager...without the hops.

not sure... i would imagine it would cut some of the aroma out, but you could chuck it back in the fermenter for a couple more days with a dry hop to make up for it?
or you could just 'choose your battles'

an article on it
http://byo.com/low-alcohol-brewing/item/263-brew-a-great-non-alcoholic-beer

cant find the thread with the side by side tasting tho...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Low alc beers are the hardest to get right...even a Mild can be hard

 

[Rod]

LIGHT Golden Pale Ale

Original Gravity (OG): 1.029 (°P): 7.3
Final Gravity (FG): 1.007 (°P): 1.8
Alcohol (ABV): 2.85 %
Colour (SRM): 3.8 (EBC): 7.5
Bitterness (IBU): 23.4 (Average)

35.71% Dry Malt Extract - Light
28.57% Dry Malt Extract - Light
22.38% Liquid Malt Extract - Wheat
8.57% Dextrose - bulk priming
4.76% Vienna

0.4 g/L Amarillo (8.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Amarillo (8.6% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L Amarillo (8.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Safale S-04

Notes: Steep 100 gr Vienna in 2 litres of 68 degree hot water

Boil 10 litres water

add 750 g light dry malt

add 470 g wheat malt

bring water to boil

add 12 g amarillo

add 18 g amarillo

at 20 minutes

add 23 g amarillo and

and 600 g light dry malt

at 5 minutes

cool and add to fermenter

make up to 25 litres

add ale yeast

bulk prime 180g


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[Not For Horses]

In the fermenter now. Definitely tasted a bit watery but still nice and caramely and roasty.
Had to go with SO4 cause I forgot that I used the ardennes on Saturday.

 

[2much2spend]

LIGHT Golden Pale Ale

Original Gravity (OG): 1.029 (°P): 7.3
Final Gravity (FG): 1.007 (°P): 1.8
Alcohol (ABV): 2.85 %
Colour (SRM): 3.8 (EBC): 7.5
Bitterness (IBU): 23.4 (Average)

35.71% Dry Malt Extract - Light
28.57% Dry Malt Extract - Light
22.38% Liquid Malt Extract - Wheat
8.57% Dextrose - bulk priming
4.76% Vienna

0.4 g/L Amarillo (8.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.7 g/L Amarillo (8.6% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L Amarillo (8.6% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Safale S-04

Notes: Steep 100 gr Vienna in 2 litres of 68 degree hot water

Boil 10 litres water

add 750 g light dry malt

add 470 g wheat malt

bring water to boil

add 12 g amarillo

add 18 g amarillo

at 20 minutes

add 23 g amarillo and

and 600 g light dry malt

at 5 minutes

cool and add to fermenter

make up to 25 litres

add ale yeast

bulk prime 180g


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

I like to try!

 

[Rod]

I altered the James Squire copy recipe of Golden Ale

to lower the alcohol as I sometimes like a low alcohol brew

Don't know if it is a good copy but it is a good drink

 

[stakka82]

I brewed a kolsh a while back and got 2 cubes and 4 litres out of it, so I put 6l of boiling water and the 4l in a 10l cube and fermented it as a starter for the normal cubes.

Usually I work it so that I'm left with 6-7l of beer and then i get a 3.5% beer while growing the yeast. Those beers are always good, sessionable midstrength versions of their big brother cubes.

With the Kolsh though it was only 2% and like someone else said, it really suffered for it. Nothing actually wrong with it, but it tasted like soda water with beer flavouring. I reckon 2.8-3% is the limit of what still tastes like actual beer, although mashing high and using a low attenuating yeast might get you down to 2.5% or so without massively compromising drinkability.

2c.

 

[manticle]

Regularly make a mild at about 3.5 - uses lots of malts and a high, short mash and is very flavoursome.

I reckon you could drop the base to make it 3% or maybe a touch lower and still have something decent.