Low alcohol cerveza kit?

Shirley Bassett · Jun 22, 2021

SWMBO likes low or zero alcohol lager type beer, such Budweiser Prohibition or Becks blue etc.

She‘s asked is it possible to ferment a Wilco Cerveza kit without adding the recommended 1kg of sugar, and if so what alcohol % would the kit produce.

She isn’t adverse to consuming alcohol, in fact she drinks Malbec and the like at 14%.

Slid · Jun 22, 2021

Around 2% or so. If that's the plan, then extra precautions with sanitation, as 2% ABV is not as effective an anti-bacterial as 4%?

Nothing wrong with low alcohol drinks, of course, and this sort of approach might be fine.

Shirley Bassett · Jun 22, 2021

Slid,

Thanks for the response.

I wasn’t sure the kit would ferment.

I usually batch prime “full strength” kit at 8g / litre.

I was always led to believe that 20g of sugar in 1 litre of water / beer would produce around 1% alcohol.

I therefore assume the end product would be under 2.5% alcohol when primed, or have you accounted for carbonation in the 2% answer?

I usually wash buckets and utensils in 60C soapy water, and then rinse in cold, and Starsan everything, either a good glug in the bucket and mist everything else. Is this sufficient sanitisation.

Slid · Jun 22, 2021

Yeah

Shirley Bassett said:
Slid,

Thanks for the response.

I wasn’t sure the kit would ferment.

I usually batch prime “full strength” kit at 8g / litre.

I was always led to believe that 20g of sugar in 1 litre of water / beer would produce around 1% alcohol.

I therefore assume the end product would be under 2.5% alcohol when primed, or have you accounted for carbonation in the 2% answer?

I usually wash buckets and utensils in 60C soapy water, and then rinse in cold, and Starsan everything, either a good glug in the bucket and mist everything else. Is this sufficient sanitisation.

I would say the sanitation is fine. If you get good results at 8g per litre priming, that is OK with me, but it seems like a lot.

Your 20g sugar in 1litre water approximating to 1% alcohol sounds good to me. So in a 23L batch you add 184g of priming sugar - that would make for 2.4% or so, right enough. In my early kit brewing days, and most of us here did them, I would go 200g in 25L and am still here.

Pirate_Pete · Jun 23, 2021

Slid said:
Yeah

I would say the sanitation is fine. If you get good results at 8g per litre priming, that is OK with me, but it seems like a lot.

Your 20g sugar in 1litre water approximating to 1% alcohol sounds good to me. So in a 23L batch you add 184g of priming sugar - that would make for 2.4% or so, right enough. In my early kit brewing days, and most of us here did them, I would go 200g in 25L and am still here.

I'm 99% certain that 8g of dextrose per litre, is the same as using two Coopers carbonation drops in a 740ml pet bottle, which they recommend.
So there would be quite a lot of people priming at that rate.
I don't mind it for Lagers. Maybe a tad too much for Ales.

Shirley Bassett · Jun 23, 2021

I usually prime pressed cider at 10g / litre,
Cerveza at 8g and stout at 6g.

I learnt quite quickly that 10g was too much for beer.

dwhite60 · Jun 24, 2021

Think I would make it to at least 4% abv then dilute it with boiled water at bottling. Add your priming sugar to this water.

Less than 4% abv is just too much risk of infection.

Shirley Bassett · Jun 24, 2021

Unfortunately it is already fermenting at 20 litres volume.

Shirley Bassett · Jun 25, 2021

I like the idea of brewing it at 4% and then diluting it down at the end stage with boiled water. Therefore I’ve added 1kg of dissolved sugar to this batch and will have to fall on my sword and drink it when it’s ready.

The next one I’ll brew at 10litres and dilute it down when I batch prime and bottle.

stuartmarler · Oct 18, 2024

Has anyone tried this?
What results were obtained?

Low alcohol cerveza kit?

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