Non alcoholic beer?

[suffolkbeer]

ive been asked to brew a non-alcoholic beer any idea if this is possible?

 

[foxbat]

If 0.5% ABV is close enough to zero for you then you can try Brew Dog's "Nanny State". It's in the DIY DOG pdf that you can download, inappropriately sandwiched between a Belgian DIPA and a huge RIS.

 

[Dutto]

The only way I can think of is to use Fractional Freezing. :thumb1:If you put a beer into a freezer and let it slowly freeze you will be left with a slush. The liquids have a high alcohol content and are sold as "Iced Beer" and when thawed out, the solids produce a low alcohol beer. :thumb1:I have often seen Americans freeze their beer cans, suck off the high alcohol liquids and then dump the rest when it starts to melt. However, as the average American beer is like the proverbial gnats-pee I can well understand why they dump the watery bits. :laugh2:Personally, I reckon that a nice dark, low ABV bitter would produce solids that still retained a palatable taste, but what the final ABV would be I really couldn't calculate.:confused1:Hope this helps.
PS The high alcohol liquids drained from the slush could be used to fortify another brew! NEVER throw it away!:headbang:

 

[Duxuk]

The only way I can think of is to use Fractional Freezing. :thumb1:If you put a beer into a freezer and let it slowly freeze you will be left with a slush. The liquids have a high alcohol content and are sold as "Iced Beer" and when thawed out, the solids produce a low alcohol beer. :thumb1:I have often seen Americans freeze their beer cans, suck off the high alcohol liquids and then dump the rest when it starts to melt. However, as the average American beer is like the proverbial gnats-pee I can well understand why they dump the watery bits. !:headbang:

Beware. Concentrating alcohol is illegal. OK so you'll never get caught..........................so it's up to you really:thumb:

 

[GerritT]

Excellent choice.

 

[Dutto]

Beware. Concentrating alcohol is illegal. OK so you'll never get caught..........................so it's up to you really:thumb:

The Distillation of alcohol is illegal. Freezing the liquid in a domestic freezer will not produce the percentage of ethanol in the liquid that even "single-stage" distillation can achieve. :thumb1:This is why a bottle of 37.5% vodka stays liquid in the freezer.:thumb1:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Beware. Concentrating alcohol is illegal. OK so you'll never get caught..........................so it's up to you really

As Dutto says its not illegal and has been discussed here many times.

.

 

[MyQul]

GET THEE BEHIND ME WITCH!!!!

 

[MyQul]

Have a look here at how Beirmuncher on our sister site HBT, 'took one for the team' and had a go at making a low alohol beer

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/creating-an-na-or-how-i-neutered-my-beer.39433/

 

[suffolkbeer]

GET THEE BEHIND ME WITCH!!!!

I know, I’m sorry.

 

[MagnusTS]

I was also thinking of trying this, and I read that you could make low alcohol beer by heating to 80C after fermentation, before bottling. Drives off the alcohol. Drawbacks are you have add more yeast for bottle carbonation, and you have to take account for the extra bitterness from boiling off the alcohol.

https://www.midwestsupplies.com/making-non-alcoholic-beer

Sounds like a bit of a faff though, and not too sure the end result would be very nice. In the end I decided to make a 3.8% free from the Greg Hughes book. 3.8% is virtually alcohol free isn't it?

 

[Saisonator]

https://brewdogrecipes.com/recipes/nanny-state

 

[MyQul]

I have a recipe in my clone brews book for a ginger shandy. Basically it is a beer made to 1% but has no hops and ginger as a late addition in the boil instead of hops. I've wondered whether you could adapt the reciepe to make a 1% beer. You wouldnt add bittering hops but add dry hop/add a hop tea for flavour. At 1% I dont think it would be (too) sweet from not having any bittering hops as it wouldnt have much sugars from converted starches. The reciepe has lactose, which I presume is to give it body

 

[Dutto]

............ I read that you could make low alcohol beer by heating to 80C after fermentation, before bottling. Drives off the alcohol. ...........

It will drive off SOME of the alcohol and the reason it quotes 80C is that the Boiling Point of Ethanol is 78C.

However, ethanol forms an azeotropic mixture with water so the ethanol will start to escape at 78C, but depending on the original concentration (i.e. the original ABV) and kept at 80C for an hour, as little as 0.5% of the ethanol may escape from the mixture.

Traceable ethanol would still be left behind in an ethanol/water mixture with an ABV to 1% even if it was brought up to the 100C boiling point of water. Azeotropic mixtures are an absolute bugger to separate!

 

[MrRook]

There's an old prohibition saying: Whoever called it near beer was a poor judge of distance.
What you want to do is very difficult on a home brew level.

 

[dan125]

The basic brewing podcast from the 11th Jan is about brewing non-alcoholic beer - the bloke trying was only partly succsessful but it might be useful listening:

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

 

[ACBEV]

Here is a beer recipe from 1918, which is almost alcohol free.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/lets-brew-wednesday-1918-kidd-da.html

 

[Drunkula]

3.8% is virtually alcohol free isn't it?

Yes. That's what we limit ourselves to when doing the school run and allow the kids in their flasks. They ask for pop but that stuff rots ya teefs.

 

[peebee]

Alcohol-free in UK law is defined as <0.05%. I think some other countries define it as <0.5% and I'm sure this used to be the case in UK? I used to legally buy "shandy" as a kid and it was 0.5%. Drinks with the alcohol sucked out are allowed to have 0.5% alcohol left in them.

As 0.05% is impractical I'm stumping for 0.5% for my Government recommended "abstention days" (may be stretching out to 3-4 days not two 'cos I'm cheating) and am working on producing "Nanny-State" type beers. My plan being to ferment in the dispense container (keg) as there is not much point putting it in a real fermenter. I'm sorting out "spunging" valves (https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/regulators-as-spunding-valves.74958) so it can be fermented and conditioned at the same time. Dry hopping might be a problem (opening a keg full of conditioned "beer" to pull 'em out - they'll go in at the start).​

 

[foxbat]

I used to legally buy "shandy" as a kid and it was 0.5%. ​

​

Was that the Bass Shandy? I used to buy that as well and recall it tasted rather nice though I may have a rose tint in my rear view mirror.