Real Low Alcohol Beer

[kangabill]

I've brewed my own for some 20 years. But with a medication I'm NOW on any alcohol gives me a raging headache.

Bummer Eh??

BUT after some experimentation I found Coopers "Birell"; supposedly 0.5% alcohol.

Ok... OK .... so it sounds dreadful. Actually it doesn't taste too bad and it doesn't give me a blazing headache.

QUESTION

Using Coopers cans (don't all abuse me) how much malt would I use in 25l to get down that low.
Or should I use a 60l brewer and add 1 or a fraction more 750gm cans to how many Liters in brewer?

Any help would be appreciated. I know it's a sad way to be in but at least I can still pretend it's 100HP real beer <_<

 

[rclemmett]

I don't think it would be possible to brew beer, that tastes like beer and not flavoured water, at that low an alc % with a kit.

I think you would need to look into removing the alcohol from it... ie raise the temp until the alcohol evaporates, or something like that.

 

[barry2]

I suggest you try the calculator at

http://www.brewcraft.com.au/wa.asp?idWebPa...p;idDetails=172

It includes .5% alcohol for the carbonation sugar.

I also suggest that you make very small batches of 2-3 litres until you get the right flavour and bearable body.I agree Birells is not too bad and your production should be at a small fraction of the cost of Birrel.

 

[phinnsfotos]

I seem to recall a thread a while ago (6 months) talking about brewing light beers with lots of steeped grains and lots of hops. To try and get some flavour into it with out a lot of alcohol. I liked the idea but never tried myself.

 

[dgilks]

I seem to recall a thread a while ago (6 months) talking about brewing light beers with lots of steeped grains and lots of hops. To try and get some flavour into it with out a lot of alcohol. I liked the idea but never tried myself.

Yeah, a couple of members (Maple and Ross) posted recipes for Imperial Milds. IIRC they were both around 2 - 2.5% ABV which may be too high for the OP. On the other hand, the concept sounds damn tasty.

 

[crundle]

I recently tried a Birell, and although it wasn't quite to my liking, it had a reasonable amount of body to it and a not too bad taste of malt. It was a bit over bittered to my palate, but as a very low alcohol beer it was certainly drinkable.

I was discussing how a similar beer could be made, and a few of us came to the conclusion that you would have to brew the beer as normal and 'evaporate' the alcohol off in a process remarkably similar to a process that we cannot discuss here, and instead of collecting the 'evaporated' alcohol and disposing of the now alcohol reduced liquid, just collect the beer which should now be of a lower alcohol level than before.

One of the guys I know has the equipment to do this, and was interested in giving it a try at some stage to see if it was possible to do, and what effect it would have on the taste of the resulting beer.

I believe that Birell is made purely from being brewed (after some googling) using an extremely low attenuating yeast, which would explain the need for bittering at the high end of the scale.

Has anyone ever tried to see if they could culture the yeast in a Birell (assuming that some is left in there after filtering)?

It seems to be an interesting idea of how to get such a low alcohol beer to have body and flavour, and for the OP it is of much more importance.

I hope this perhaps gets some discussion going as to how such a beer may be emulated by homebrewers.

Crundle

 

[Swinging Beef]

Dont some of the big German brewers make a "0abv" beer?
Hows that done then?

 

[phinnsfotos]

How about brew the beer backwards?

Make your wort (or extract) fill it up to 23 litres, ferment. Then once it's finished fermenting rack to a large pot and boil your hops. Cool down again add some more yeast and sugar for bottling and bottle straight away.

No idea what might happen, but there wouldn't be any alcohol after a boil.

 

[Fourstar]

Dont some of the big German brewers make a "0abv" beer?
Hows that done then?

Via Vacuum evaporation/distillation of the alcohol AFAIK. You could try an 'inverse eisbock' and throw away the condensed beer while keeping the lower alc remnants and see what the results are like if you are not interested in heat pasturisation of your beer.

 

[Nick JD]

Go to a scotch distillery and ask for the stuff they pour down the drain from the still. Carbonate it. YUM!

 

[muckey]

Go to a scotch distillery and ask for the stuff they pour down the drain from the still. Carbonate it. YUM!

yum. unhopped 0% alcohol beer and scotch - I suddenly feel thristy.............................

 

[jonocarroll]

How about brew the beer backwards?

Make your wort (or extract) fill it up to 23 litres, ferment. Then once it's finished fermenting rack to a large pot and boil your hops. Cool down again add some more yeast and sugar for bottling and bottle straight away.

No idea what might happen, but there wouldn't be any alcohol after a boil.

I think buttersd70 tried this at one stage - the result was not as expected, and not recommended.

First, you need to get rid of the yeast as much as possible, i.e. filter, otherwise you're cooking up some vegemite. Second, if you boil you will take off volatiles as well as alcohol - to do it properly you would want to only 'boil' the alcohol at whatever temp that is (lower than 100*C).

Perhaps there's an easier way - make up an extract brew with a tin but no extra sugars, then add a truck-load of boiled hops for bitterness to counter the overwhelming sweetness. Another truck-load of hops for flavour/aroma additions. Chuck it straight into a keg and carb up, bypassing the ferment entirely. 0% alcohol: check. Heresy: check. Drinkable: ???

Actually, this one's got me somewhat curious... I am actually wondering what this would taste like. Beer-cordial anyone? :blink:

 

[geoffi]

The most convincing way I've heard to achieve a low-alcohol beer at home is with post-fermentation heating and evaporation. But I recall reading that while you could get it down pretty low, it was almost impossible to get it down to the level of a real 'alcoholfrei' beer.

 

[Mr.Moonshine]

My understanding is that unless you boil the hops in POST alcohol removal, the boiling will either take the hop oils with the evaporated alcohol, or the heat will change their flavour somehow. It'd certainly be an interesting drink!
If you were to go with tonnes of speciality malts, lots of hops and a really non-attenuative yeast, you would probably get a good result (Maple and Ross' idea sounds pretty solid), and you'd avoid the extra 0.5% alcohol if you keg conditioned.

Just my $0.02

Mr.Moonshine

 

[muckey]

butters hasn't tried it but he did research the method.
essentially you make your beer and ferment as normal.

Once fermentation is complete you heat the beer up to around 68 - 70 degrees c (definately not boiling) and keep it at that temperature until the alcohol has boiled off and you are left with dealcoholised beer

how good the end product is, is anyones guess

 

[.DJ.]

Has anyone asked Coopers how they do it? I cant imagine it would be a secret process?

 

[Adamt]

Also, how long until all the alcohol evaporates is anyone's guess.

 

[OzMick]

I'd expect to drive off 4 parts of water for every part of alcohol if you're just boiling, that should give some indication of completion. If I were doing it, I'd go with an underattenuated mash and dilute, and if that didn't get a low enough alcohol would much prefer to remove it under vacuum and avoid pasteurisation temperatures. Both methods are used in industry, but probably not together in general.

You could also cut a fully dealcoholised brew with the normal brew say 50/50 to halve the alcohol and keep some hop flavour and esters. You could be creative and heavily late hop to balance things out maybe and try varying ratios?

 

[drsmurto]

As Fourstar pointed out, vacuum distillation would be the way i would approach it.

A good enough vacuum as well as a vigreux column and you will be able to 'distill' off the ethanol at room temperature.

 

[Kai]

Also, how long until all the alcohol evaporates is anyone's guess.

In theory you could work it out on real versus apparent attenuation. For example, a beer starting at 1.040 and finishing fermentation at 1.010 has a real attenuation of 1.0123 so if you're clever enough to evaporate off the alcohol and not the water then that's what you'd end up at.

Of course in practicality this isn't going to work as you are going to evaporate water also but it could provide a good indication with a little correction.