A low ABV brew

[BackToBasics]

In an ongoing attempt to drink less during the week and after trying various non/low-alcohol beers (Becks blue is surprisingly drinkable, Doombar 0% is like drinking unfermented wort!) I've decided to try and brew a low ABV beer myself. I've watched a few videos on the topic and have come up with the following recipe for a 21l batch

Fermentables
900g maris otter (65.2%)
320g crystal dark (23.2%)
60g chocolate malt (4.4%)
100g lactose (7.3%)
OG - 1.016
FG - 1.013
ABV - 0.4%

Hops - all Lemondrop (as I have it in and have no other plans for it at this point)
30g at 15mins
20g at 0 mins
50g dry hop
Total 14 IBU

Yeast - voss kveik

Mash will be at 80c for 30 mins (it's not like I'm hugely concerned about efficiency here) - a tip from the David Heath low ABV video to reduce the amount of fermentable sugar in the wort. Lactose is from the same video to give a bit more body to the beer without introducing more fermentable sugars - not sure on the amount so just added 100g and it seems to keep the FG about where I think it should be. The crystal and chocolate malt are borrowed from the nanny state recipe - their recipe seems to focus on using malts with low diastatic power but the fact I'm using MO spoils that. However, I do like the idea of upping the malt flavour and colour and I have crystal dark and chocolate on hand.

On the hops, I don't know if I should add more bittering hops as I'm not sure adhering to bu/gu ratios really applies here. Currently have a bu/gu of 0.87.

The kveik is being used just because I don't want this clogging up the fermentation chamber longer than it needs to if it's bad!

Anyone tried anything similar? Any tips, tricks and adjustments to the recipe would be appreciated.

 

[DocAnna]

I'm really interested to hear how this turns out, less about the alcohol itself as I don't drink a lot, but the calorie content being lower appeals .

 

[Sadfield]

I'd avoid Kveik yeast, it's adapted to brew beers 20 times the abv of this and needs wort that is high in nutrients. It will ferment quick enough with standard yeast, as there's very little to ferment anyway.

I'd also consider swapping the MO for Munich malt, it gives more malt flavour and body when used in such a small grist. Rye malt, or Chevallier are other grains to consider.

@peebee has a couple of threads on this subject that are worth doing a forum search for.

 

[BackToBasics]

I'd avoid Kveik yeast, it's adapted to brew beers 20 times the abv of this and needs wort that is high in nutrients. It will ferment quick enough with standard yeast, as there's very little to ferment anyway.

I'd also consider swapping the MO for Munich malt, it gives more malt flavour and body when used in such a small grist. Rye malt, or Chevallier are other grains to consider.

@peebee has a couple of threads on this subject that are worth doing a forum search for.

I'd not considered that about the kveik. I'll change it out for some CML ale yeast I've got on hand.

I've not got a lot of munich malt left but I'll see what I've got and will at least add some. Not really sure why I didn't include it in the first place as it ends up in nearly all my beers.

 

[peebee]

@peebee has a couple of threads on this subject that are worth doing a forum search for.

Thanks @Sadfield!

Good reminder that I need to restart my "low alcohol" brewing project. Link to my last attempts >here<. I was doing alright with my slightly hazardous "cold extraction" attempts but needed to get the ABV down (2% ... mind-numbingly high!).

I also posted a concern about these "low alcohol" yeasts being used commercially (which might interest @DocAnna following her post earlier in the thread about "the calorie content being lower appeals ").

 

[BackToBasics]

Cheers @peebee I've read that thread with interest. For the time being I think I'll stick with an 80c mash and adding lactose for extra body but I may try the cold steep at some point.

I assume the low-alcohol Doombar is made using a low alcohol yeast based on your experience with the Brooklyn Special Effect. Until I get my own low ABV on tap I think I'll stick to the Becks Blue on my non-drinking days.

I've got a couple of packs of CMLs The Firm at home which I believe is similar to Windsor so I'll give that a go rather than either the voss or CML ale.

I'm going to be brewing this on Saturday so I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[peebee]

Good reminder that I need to restart my "low alcohol" brewing project ...

And I'm off to a flying start ... I've just ordered a 48 can Brewdog AF selection pack.

That'll keep me from low alcohol brewing for a few weeks.

... I think I'll stick with an 80c mash and adding lactose ...

80! That's brave. I was thinking of trying 75-76 but never got around to it. I'll watch with interest.

But if you can get away with 80, that'll dump loads of dextrin in the wort which that yeast (if it's like Windsor) shouldn't touch. You shouldn't need the body lactose might bring, but lactose might provide some extra sweetness?

 

[BackToBasics]

David Heath's low ABV IPA is mashed at 80c and I think he recommended Windsor as well. His came out around 1% but also had a larger grain bill. Essentially I've taken his recipe, borrowed some character malts from nanny state and have changed the hop schedule to fit around what I've got available.

I've tweaked my recipe a bit to go 50:50 MO and Munich. I think this will be the version I go with on Saturday unless anyone comes up with any ideas that particularly appeal before then.

 

[BackToBasics]

@DocAnna just remembered that brewfather gives a calorific value for the finished beer. It's coming out at 13.4kcals/100ml so around 76kcal for a pint. For comparison the 4.2% stout I've got conditioning will be 221kcal/pint and the 5.5% lager I've got on tap is 275kcal/pint.

Of course, all this is pretty meaningless if the low ABV beer misses the mark in other regards.

 

[peebee]

I looked at the David Heath video. I can't say anything bad about it, 'cos it's pretty well doing exactly what I arrived at with my series of posts a few years back. The big difference is the 79-80°C mashing temperature, I had only dared get up to 74°C but was considering higher.

I'll have to try it. Thanks for hi-lighting it (and thanks to @Sadfield for making me aware of the thread). If the remarkably hot temperature mash allows for increasing the pale malt without resorting to "cold extraction" (which has its gremlins*) it must be a decent step. My earlier attempts used predominantly Munich Malt and had a distinctly alien taste to it (we've got accustomed to pale malt based beer).

Getting full conversion (through alpha-amylase activity), but very little maltose conversion (beta-amylase activity) is the key aim. Adding "dextrin malt" (Carapils, etc) seems unnecessary given the amount of dextrin the mash retains at that temperature?

Other differences with my method: I'd "full-boil-volume-mash" as there wasn't much point doing anything else. And fermented in the dispensing keg under pressure (about 12 psi) so I didn't have to "carbonate" (it was ready in less than a week). Fermenting in the keg also avoids messing about with it too much because making such weak beer does make it vulnerable to picking up bad taints.

I always used S-33 yeast and described it as "maltotriose adverse" which I reckon is classier sounding than "maltotriose negative"!

David Heath's video: Low Alcohol IPA Homebrewers Full Guide and Recipe - YouTube

Watch the hopping! It is extremely easy to make it intolerably bitter. David Heath is (naturally?) pushing the top end of hoppiness, so don't ignore what he is suggesting. I was adding all my hops as "steep" hops (85°C) to keep the IBUs down.

* One gremlin being I couldn't control the OG very well and a few times had results about 2% ABV! That's grotesquely high by the way! And another, people have burnt out their boiler element with the "cold mash" technique.

 

[BackToBasics]

I'll rewatch the video tonight before I tackle the brew tomorrow. Definitely going to do a full volume mash. Like you, I can't see the point of doing a sparge.

I think I should be okay with the hopping. Other than a 25g addition @ 15 mins everything else will either at flameout or added for dry hopping. Brewfather says it'll be 14 IBUs which I think will be okay.

I'll be fermenting in a fermzilla all-rounder under pressure and performing a closed transfer after everything has been cleaned and sanitised including running plenty of star-san through all the connecting tubes and fittings. Hopefully this will be sufficient to avoid anything nasty getting in.

 

[peebee]

Looked at my last brew (18 months ago!): Over-night cold-extraction, 30-minute hot-mash at 71°C (too cool!). Total IBUs were 7.2. The IBU/SG ratio (better indicator I found) was 0.355. 5g Celeia as boil hops (30-minute boil), Celeia and Wai-ite as steep hops and dry hops. Use NBS Brausol finings, but not sure what good they do. It was a "cold extraction" and the result was fairly "opaque" (being nice about it). 1.3% ABV which was higher than I wanted.

Used some oat malt for "mouth-feel". The weedy oat grains were crushed at 20thou rather than 30). Mainly pale (barley) malt and quite a lot been "cold-extracted". A big headache with "cold-extraction" is heating it to 70°C+ without letting it convert (while passing through the optimum temperature zone) the dextrin and suspended starch (the extract is heavily laden with enzymes).

[EDIT: Dry hops were added in a basket at the start of fermentation and removed after cooling (gas vented, lid off, remove hop basket, lid on and pressure back up, all without getting a foam over which is why it's cooled first!]

 

[BackToBasics]

Brew day today and I've just done a final update to the recipe.

The chocolate malt has gone. I just didn't see it sitting well with the lemondrop. Grist will now be 420g each of MO and Munich and 240g of crystal - should get me an EBC of around 17. I was wary of having this too light as I want to avoid any hint that this is a watered down beer.

Hops schedule has been tweaked slightly, but only to bring down the IBU slightly. I've not got it at 10 IBUs with an OG of 1.014 (bu/gu of 0.68). My other additions seem roughly inline with the David Heath video albeit with a flame out addition rather than a hopstand.

I'll let you know how the brew goes.

 

[BackToBasics]

I'm afraid brew day got postponed. Probably going to be next weekend now.

 

[BackToBasics]

Brew day definitely happening today (assuming no more family drama).

I've just compared the recipe in my original post to what I've got in brewfather and I seem to have tweaked it a bit more than I'd thought. The final recipe will be

395g maris otter (33.5%)
395g munich (33.5%)
240g crystal (20.3%)
50g wheat (4.2%)
100g lactose (8.5%)

Sticking with lemondrop for the hops
20g @ 15 mins
20g @ 0 mins
42g dry hop (I've no idea why this has changed from the 50g I'd got before but I assume there was some reason for it)

CML The Firm

Vitals
OG 1.014
FG 1.011
IBU 10
BU:GU 0.68
EBC 18

I'll be sticking with a 30 minute mash @ 80c and a 30 minute boil.

Going to have my second coffee of the day and then I'm going to get started.

 

[BackToBasics]

Happy to report an uneventful brewday.

Not a huge amount to report at this point. I seemed to struggle keeping the mash at 80c but it was definitely high 70s throughout. OG is sat around 1.015 so I've just got to hope that the yeast does what I'm expecting and keeps things around the 0.4%/0.5% mark.

One odd thing is the clarity of the wort - it's decidedly murky. I'm hoping it's just protein and will drop out as it sits before I put it in the fermenter. Not the end of the world if there's some haze to it but I would have liked it to be clear.

 

[clib]

Any links to peebee's threads? Cheers.

Another option for low abv brewing that I just discovered is cold mashing or non-enzymatic mashing, which uses low temperature mashing to take flavour and body from the grains but not the sugars. You can use the grain again as a source of sugars, maybe for a lager, like an adjunct.

https://bisonbrew.com/non-enzymatic-mashing/#:~:text=Tiny Table Beer,ABV of 1 – 1.5%!

 

[BackToBasics]

Here you go PeeBee's Brewday - Low Alcohol Beer II

Cheers for the link - I'll read it properly later but it looks interesting. I'm assuming this is the same cold mash method that @peebee used?

Had a taste of my wort that was left behind in the sample jar. I know you can't tell a lot from wort but it already feels very thin in the mouth and was more bitter than I was expecting. I'm going to start off carbonating to around 2.2 volumes but it might need taking a bit higher to try and combat the thinness. I don't want it super fizzy though.

 

[peebee]

Any links to peebee's threads? Cheers. ...

It was linked in this thread (#5). Which will link earlier threads.

Watch out! The method isn't without hazards!

 

[clib]

Here you go PeeBee's Brewday - Low Alcohol Beer II

Cheers for the link - I'll read it properly later but it looks interesting. I'm assuming this is the same cold mash method that @peebee used?

Had a taste of my wort that was left behind in the sample jar. I know you can't tell a lot from wort but it already feels very thin in the mouth and was more bitter than I was expecting. I'm going to start off carbonating to around 2.2 volumes but it might need taking a bit higher to try and combat the thinness. I don't want it super fizzy though.

I don't know what peebee did - I'll have a read of his thread later. Cheers for the link.