Lower % Beers

[neil007]

Hi, I am looking for a lower ABV beer for everyday drinking - I go to the offie and all the bottled ales are 4.8%+. I like a strong beer or five, but not every night. I need a lower % brew in kit form or extract form to keep my liver in top notch condition.

Any ideas?

 

[goodly dudscrew]

One of the guys on here told me a wile back, if you want to make a lower % beer from a kit, just had half the recommended amount of sugar and you will get a brew of about 1%, would that be weak enough for you?

 

[neil007]

nah i ws thinking 3-3.5%

cheers though :

 

[Frisp]

Im no expert and im sure one will be along in a minute but these are my thoughts.

If you use a hydrometer and add sugar only until you have an OG of around 1035 and employ a yeast where you know roughly where it will finish like a packet of So4 or Nottingham which are likely to finish at around 1011 ish then you could be fairly certain of drinking a beer of around 3.4 ABV.
Thats the paramaters that would fit for all grain brewing and Im sure they should work with a kit

If you want total control of your ale take a look at All Grain brewing. its not that hard just read up, make some cheap kit, pick a recipe and some grain and off you go... you control the abv...

 

[tubby_shaw]

I agree with Frisp :thumb:
Although as kits don't tend to attenuate as much as AG I would up the original gravity to 1.038