Brewing a low alcohol beer

[Prakash Ross]

Has anyone got experience of brewing a low alcohol beer. Am thinking of trying one out. I have been full mash brewing for over two years now with good success. I’d like to experiment on making some low alcohol beer so I can drink a bit more without being drunk!

 

[Dutto]

Please define "low alcohol" then search for it to see the latest offering on the subject.

 

[Prakash Ross]

Low alcohol beer under 3.0%

 

[Dutto]

Most of my beers are under 4% ABV and most of them finish fermenting at an FG of 1.010.

To produce an ABV brew of less than 3%, all I would have to do is to add s couple of litres of water before fermentation to drop the OG to less than 1.033 and then carbonate with CO2 instead of sugar.

 

[Prakash Ross]

Very helpful suggestion, many thanks. I have never used CO2 to carbonate, but presumably when I bottle could add less sugar than normal

 

[MrRook]

When I brew a low alcohol beer I like to add some complexity to the recipe: 2 or 3 crystal, dark, and base grains instead of just 1.

 

[Sadfield]

Low alcohol beer under 3.0%

0 to 3% is quite a large variable and really needs splitting down. I my opinion to brew the following.

2-3% - mash a degree or two higher than usual, 5-10% Crystal malts and add munich, aromatic or melanoidin malt to add extra maltiness.

1 - 2% - increase the above suggestions and think of other ways to add layers of flavours outside of standard brewing ingredients (tea, coffee, fruits, spices etc). Lactose is a good option here to add some body back to the beer.

sub 1% - forget what most textbooks tell you about maximum % for speciality grains and mash schedules. See this thread, https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/peebees-brewday-low-alcohol-beer.77965/

 

[Prakash Ross]

Many thanks for the very useful information. I will do some experimental brews..

 

[smithsj1]

I had a commercial no alcohol brew yesterday and I'll be honest it tasted like SodaStream water initially then the flavours came through so that got me thinking about dilution as the way around this. So how about brewing say a 10 litre batch of regular 4% beer then diluting it with water in a 19l keg that you then carbonate. That should give a beer of about circa 2.2%. I would assume that the hops for the regular beer would have to be increased to impart flavour to a 19l keg rather than the initial 10l batch but I guess that can be worked out. Just a thought and was wondering if anyone has tried to do this before.

 

[F00b4r]

Don't dilute it post fermentation as you will be adding oxygen to the beer, even if you boil it first (it will revert as it cools). The macros that ferment at high ABV and dilute after use special machines as deoxygenated water to avoid this issue.

 

[smithsj1]

Gotcha - basically just a scale down of ingredients then. Maybe one day I will get around to having a go but for the meantime I have plenty of extract and crushed malt to get through. :)