What defies a low carb beer?

[klangers]

Nice one.

I wonder if CUB and Lion are doing the same or whether they are dropping in refined cane sugar?

I can't speak for CUB, but every brewery at Lion is a little bit different. Remember that Lion has a lot of smaller boutique breweries too.

You're right though, for a sugar source it's cane sugar. Typically liquid (50-60 degrees Brix) from bulk tankers for Tooheys. Malt Shovel and Little Creatures are all-malt I believe.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Hmmm maybe instead of low carb, a good marketing approach might be low fructose, or no fructose?

For that matter, I wonder how many commercial megaswills use gelatin (animal waste biproduct)to clarify. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, it's just whether the punters know or not. Personally I'm not too keen on using gelatin, but that's a personal choice - no judgment on those that do (I eat meat and I like it). Just prefer to have it in solid form is all.

 

[klangers]

Hmmm maybe instead of low carb, a good marketing approach might be low fructose, or no fructose?

For that matter, I wonder how many commercial megaswills use gelatin (animal waste biproduct)to clarify. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, it's just whether the punters know or not. Personally I'm not too keen on using gelatin, but that's a personal choice - no judgment on those that do (I eat meat and I like it). Just prefer to have it in solid form is all.

I believe the GI of maltose to be far higher than glucose. Glucose is 100, maltose was around 120 from memory. So all of the sugars in malt impact more on your glycemic system more than glucose. I think fructose is ~110.

"Low carb" is simply "high attenuation".

My view is that beer isn't a health drink. Just like "low fat" icecream doesn't suddenly make it a health food. Keep your diets balanced with your exercise, that's all there is to it.

Typical large breweries use PVPP (a synthetic polymer) as a flocculant. Then they also cold filter, typically through kieselguhr/diatomaceous earth (a very fine clay with enormous surface area) filters. Before PVPP, isinglass was used. I don't know any breweries that use gelatin.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Not sure if I like the thought of my beer treated with a polymer either..

 

[barls]

I believe the GI of maltose to be far higher than glucose. Glucose is 100, maltose was around 120 from memory. So all of the sugars in malt impact more on your glycemic system more than glucose. I think fructose is ~110.

"Low carb" is simply "high attenuation".

My view is that beer isn't a health drink. Just like "low fat" icecream doesn't suddenly make it a health food. Keep your diets balanced with your exercise, that's all there is to it.

Typical large breweries use PVPP (a synthetic polymer) as a flocculant. Then they also cold filter, typically through kieselguhr/diatomaceous earth (a very fine clay with enormous surface area) filters. Before PVPP, isinglass was used. I don't know any breweries that use gelatin.

de is gone, too many other health issues from it.
we use to use perlite which is similar but i have no idea whats in it.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Siliceous volcanic, wheras diatoms are sedimentary dead organisms (I assumed calcareous, but they are also siliceous).

 

[Stouter]

Sorry, I misread the thread title as, "What defiles a low carb beer?" The very idea of a low carb beer is defilement enough for something so sacred.

 

[labels]

Not sure if I like the thought of my beer treated with a polymer either..

PVPP is approved by just about every country for approval as a food processing aid including the German beer purity law (Reinheitsgebot). I use it as a fining agent in finished beer. The stuff is very safe and widely used in food, wine and beer. Also used in the manufacturer of tablets so you've probably ingested plenty of it anyway

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Microplastics are a hot topic in environmental fields at the moment.. . Some concern out there as to where they are ending up.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Interesting article about plastic in German beer:

http://m.beforeitsnews.com/environment/2014/11/beer-a-magical-mixture-of-hops-barley-and-tiny-pieces-of-plastic-2513924.html

Does not necessarily mean it's bad for you, or derived from PVPP ... But it does make you think..

 

[Lionman]

Microplastics are a hot topic in environmental fields at the moment.. . Some concern out there as to where they are ending up.

I'll tell you where they are ending up, EVERYWHERE.

Unless producers are taking direct action to remove it from the final product, I would bet pretty much all processed foods contain plastic contaminants.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Ha. Ironically, I wonder what technology humans will come up with to flocculate out the microplastics in the ocean that are derived from plastics used to focculate the organics in our beer?

Amusing in a kind of terrifying and counterintuitive way.

 

[Jack of all biers]

Most of the damaging (to marine life) small fibre plastics that end up in the ocean are from the fibres in our synthetic clothes washed out by our washing machines then getting through the various treatments and flushed out to sea (at least that was what they said on a Catalyst episode I once saw).

 

[Bribie G]

There were experiments to make artificial blood plasma from PVPP, works quite well apparently. Also if you use hair conditioner you probably go through litres of the stuff over the life of your hair.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Synthetic plasma is probably a good use for it, would be much interest I imagine from the military.

Hopefully using rainwater there's not too much plastic ending up in our home brew. .. I just use a bit of muslin cloth to filter out the particulates if I'm dry hopping (which is rare).

 

[klangers]

de is gone, too many other health issues from it.
we use to use perlite which is similar but i have no idea whats in it.

Mmm, I was warned early on that it's rather carcinogenic when inhaled.

That said, West End, Malt Shovel use DE when I was last there (couple years ago). West End have a new brewhouse now, so I doubt very much that they still use DE. Vietnam Breweries (owned by Heineken) also used DE. Tooheys use membranes.

Newer breweries have moved to membrane filters, but sometimes there's just too much capital tied up in existing breweries to justify a switch.

We inhale so many natural fibres and all sorts that a few extra inert molecules can't hurt.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Yep breathing in fine Silica not too good for you ... silicosis and all that.