Another low alcohol beer thread, advice required

[Nicks90]

So as some of you know, for various reasons I am giving up drinking.
But I like beer!

Having tried several low / zero alcohol beers this past week, I am sold on this being an acceptable solution.
I'm particularly keen on Brooklyn brewery special effects hoppy lager at 0.5% and Guinness zero

From a homebrew point of view, doing low alcohol is difficult. The very low alcohol yeasts are generally only sold in 500gm packs and generally needs pasteurizing and therefore forced carbonation post pasteurization.
I am unable to justify either of those on something that might taste crap. So I had an idea that I would like the collective wisdom on.

How about doing a low gravity wort - mashed at 78c using a reduced grain bill with a good dollop of adjuncts for body. Maybe ending up with an OG of 1.015. Using hops sparingly to get a sensible ibu/bu ratio according to style
putting in a regular yeast for that style and waiting for it to start fermenting - active fermentation. As soon as its hits 1.010 gravity, immediately bottle the beer and seal it up using PET bottles.
Using my sensitive ability to gauge how hard the bottle is, and therefore its carbonation level, then stop the fermentation and ensure sanitation by dumping the bottles back in my kettle at 65c for 15 minutes to pasteurize.


It's my understanding that a half teaspoon of sugar for traditional carb'ing in a 500ml bottle generally gives about 0.1% abv, so if I let the fermentation continue in the bottle till it's hard, then kill it off with a bit of heat, I reckon it wouldn't come out at about 0.5% abv

Can anyone think why this wouldn't work at keeping body, keeping the hop aroma and carbing the beer, without the requirement for a full co2 kit or kegs post pasteurization.

 

[Caramel Ox]

I haven’t yet, but I plan to try the David Heath 1% recipe sometime. 1023 OG to 1015. 13 ibu. Mashed at 79. It has a ph correction to 4.6 before pitching but no pasteurisation.

 

[Nicks90]

Just had a thought, I wonder if the PET bottles will cope with 65c under pressure without deforming.

Also had another thought, as it's doing active fermentation when its bottled and continuing active primary fermentation to 'carb up', I will get a lot of sediment in the bottle. But maybe its a price worth paying for a reliable sub 1% beer that's got a bit of shelf life post pasteurization

 

[MashBag]

Just had a thought, I wonder if the PET bottles will cope with 65c under pressure without deforming.

You beat me to it. I was going to suggest you test one first.

And... Will you get off flavours from hot sediment?

Apart from that I really like the idea.

 

[MashBag]

While we are throwing ideas about.... This keeps popping up.

Make normal beer. Ferment out.
Rack into kettle.
Warm to 78°c (alc boiling point)
Cool.
Bottle @20c with 1tsp as normal and inoculate with champagne yeast.

???

 

[Nicks90]

While we are throwing ideas about.... This keeps popping up.

Make normal beer. Ferment out.
Rack into kettle.
Warm to 78°c (alc boiling point)
Cool.
Bottle @20c with 1tsp as normal and inoculate with champagne yeast.

???

That's an attempt to boil off the alcohol. As the alcohol binds with water, it can take like 2 hours at that temp for the alcohol to evaporate off.
Apparently it makes the beer taste disgusting and it's almost impossible to tell if all the alcohol has indeed gone.

I've discounted doing that method.

 

[dlowe1992]

I did a low ABV beer last year and was very pleasantly surprised with the results. Basic principles were similar to the David Heath Low ABV APA.
However, I used more grain as I was sceptical you could produce a good beer with such a small grain bill. I also wanted a high FG for some residual sweetness and body.

From memory I started at about 1.028 and fermented down to about 1.021 and it was about 0.7%.

It also didn't require any pasteurization. I've since forgotten the reasons why (I did research at the time) but suspect it was due to use of lactose and acid additions during the mash to bring the pH down..
Can dig out the recipe if of interest...

*EDIT* Just seen that @Caramel Ox already pointed out the lack of pasteurization is due to the pH adjustment. Memory is working well!

 

[MashBag]

That's an attempt to boil off the alcohol. As the alcohol binds with water, it can take like 2 hours at that temp for the alcohol to evaporate off.
Apparently it makes the beer taste disgusting and it's almost impossible to tell if all the alcohol has indeed gone.

I've discounted doing that method.

Sounds like you have done some research

 

[Nicks90]

Still not convinced a beer as low as 0.5% can keep without infection or secondary fermentation creep without some form of pasteurization
So tested my PET bottles for 15 minutes - they survived!