Low ABV brewing

[rolando]

Hi Folks!!

Hopefully my plan should work OK, but I thought I'd bring it up so we could all discuss low ABV brews / beers.

I really like the idea of more "sessionable" beers, especially with the summer coming up! I've often drunk 6/7% beers, while that's all great, as I'm sure we've all experienced, you need to watch it! Four 7.5% pints is a different beast to the usual 4/5% beers.

My plan is to do a Mangrove Jacks Juicy session IPA, minus the second malt bag, and upping the total to 25L not 23L, not sure exactly what ABV that would end up at, perhaps 3/4%? I might even add some more water after it's racked (to PB) Hopefully the M44 yeast will work OK on a low gravity beer, although it might take a while!

Anyhow what are people doing for lower ABV brews? Any tips, advice, experiences, comments etc?

Enjoy your brews!

 

[uDicko]

@peebee has been doing some stuff on low alcohol brewing which is always interesting. May be worth chipping into that one see if he has made any changes.

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/peebees-brewday-low-alcohol-beer.77965/

 

[terrym]

Try this too
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/low-alcohol-homebrew-beer.84831/

 

[MyQul]

I hardly ever brew anything more than about 3.8%. Couple of tips:

* Mash high for a bit more body like 69C/70C
* You can also mash shorter for more body too, like 40min instead of an hour

 

[Cwrw666]

I might even add some more water after it's racked (to PB)

On another thread someone said not to do this as water contains oxygen which will spoil your beer. Also said although commercial breweries do this they have fancy equipment to de-oxygenate the water first.

 

[Galena]

I hardly ever brew anything more than about 3.8%. Couple of tips:

* Mash high for a bit more body like 69C/70C
* You can also mash shorter for more body too, like 40min instead of an hour

Interesting, I don't have much interest in brewing much above 5% most of the cask ales I have drunk over the years are in the range of 3.8 - 4.8% and I expect most of my homebrews will be within this range. Having said that I have just put an English IPA recipe together at 5.9%

 

[RichK]

I've recently moved in to lower abv AG brewing, with promising results.

Typically, ~2.6kg grain mashed at ~70C with a pre-boil volume of ~20L. Should give about ~16L output at <3%

Couple of things I've noticed:
Need to be careful with hops. Very easy to overdo it!
Patience when conditioning is rewarded.

I did try M44 at 12C and it produced a very nice result (Simcoe & Citra) with the hops predominating. I left it for about 10 days, then diacetyl rest before cold crash. When using a typical ale yeast at 18C, I'm bottling after a week. My last batch had dropped to its fg within 48 hours!

I haven't yet worked out how far to push the mash temperature. The current batch was about 72C which resulted in ~2.2% abv but that's still conditioning so not yet tried.

 

[strange-steve]

Mash high for a bit more body like 79C/80C

Do you really mash that high? What sort of OG and FG do you normally get?

 

[MyQul]

Do you really mash that high? What sort of OG and FG do you normally get?

********! I meant 69C/70C! Dont know why I put 79C/80C. Thanks for pointing that out steve.The OP may had denatured their grain if they mashed that high. Idiot! (me, not you)

Im going to edit that post too, just in case the OP somehow doesnt see this one

 

[strange-steve]

********! I meant 69C/70C! Dont know why I put 79C/80C. Thanks for pointing that out steve.The OP may had denatured their grain if they mashed that high. Idiot! (me, not you)

Im going to edit that post too, just in case the OP somehow doesnt see this one

I thought you'd been doing some extreme brewing experiments à la Drunkula.

 

[MyQul]

I thought you'd been doing some extreme brewing experiments à la Drunkula.

I have accidentally done this kind of thing before and denatured the grain. Fortunately it was only a 5L brew

 

[rolando]

On another thread someone said not to do this as water contains oxygen which will spoil your beer. Also said although commercial breweries do this they have fancy equipment to de-oxygenate the water first.

Thanks I'll definitely avoid that!!

 

[rolando]

Anyone had any issues with fermentation?



Could it stall as there is little sugar in ??

 

[RichK]

Anyone had any issues with fermentation?
Could it stall as there is little sugar in ??

I'm on my third lower abv brew. No problems so far with fermenting. I've added a whole pack of yeast even though half a one might be enough. If you're concerned, I suppose you could try adding a little yeast nutrient, but not tried that myself as I don't think that's necessary. Yeast will eat what's available until it's gone.

Latest was mashed right at top end of temp range so stopped at an FG that might be a concern if not anticipated.