purine free (or at least low) beers

[David Grace]

I have a friend who loves beer, but has a problem with gout. I said that I would see if I could find a recipe for a low or no purine beer, that is at least tasty.

He has tried some of the low carb, low everything beers, and like me is deeply unimpressed with them.

Does anyone have a good home brew recipe I could use?

 

[yankinoz]

I'd be wary of any purported recipe for low or no purine beer. Yeasts produce most of the purines during fermentation. Information on whether the amount varies by yeast strain is probably lacking.

Commercial brewers of low-purine beers, mostly Japanese, do not say how they brew them. I suspect they either remove the purines after fermentation or use means other than yeast to convert sugars to alcohol.

 

[MHB]

Purine is made by yeast; brewer’s yeast makes more than most other strains like bakers and wine making yeasts.

Even within brewing yeast there is a huge range of Purine production. As you would expect lower alcohol beers have lower Purines as the yeast is doing less work. Also beers made with large amounts of unmalted adjunct, particularly rice, and brewed cooler again have lower content.
There appears to be one anomalous exception that being Old Speckled Hen, it’s a reasonably high alcohol, warmish fermented, all malt beer with a bucket of flavour that is low in Purines. It appears to be strain dependant so if you got some of their yeast that might help you head in the right direction.

You would need to do some more research on the strains of yeast available but Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire might be a good start. I would send off emails to the yeast producers (all that I could find) and ask if they have low Purine producing strains.
Mark

Yank in Oz got there faster, Its mostly about the yeast!

 

[yankinoz]

I found that Ramapo Valley brews a very low-purine beer, but they skip mashing to convert starches. That suggests they do not use yeast, but maybe organisms like those used to make sake.

Mark's (MHB) information on yeast strains is no doubt reliable, but, how low is low? Find out more as he suggests.

 

[David Grace]

thanks for your helpful replies. I used to drink Speckled Hen when I was living in England, and it was one of my go to brews, so I'll get some bottles for him. Sounds like home brewing isn't the way to go to get a low purine beer.

 

[Vini2ton]

I too suffered from the dreaded gout. I take Allorpurinol and have never been afflicted by horrid affliction since. In fact, tonight I'm having prawn bisque for dinner. Get on it dude.