Low alcohol experiments

[brenmurph]

South Kildare brewers have been reducing the alcohol content of our beers since the new year.
Pretty much all the beers we have brewed this year are below 4% and since mid march below 3.5%

Today I brewed 2 all-grains one is an english bitter 2.2% and the other a northern brown 1.7%
One of the problems with low alc beer is there is less malt needed to make low alc beers so getting a nice malt profile is difficult and who wants a watery beer.
Been doing a lot of research about low alc / light beers and some of the ideas I'm incorporating are

really good malty malts like vienna and Munich, toasted, biscuit and amber
a little choc or dark malt
High mash temp (69-70) to produce a lower alcohol content and a maltier / sweeter beer
Very little sparging to enhance the malty profile ( lots of sparge may cause grainyness rather than maltyness)
Long hard boil to add caramelly / toffee hints
Complexity of hops to add variety of aromas and flavours. Todays brews Ive used a mix or german, american and english with lots of late additions.

After that a suitable yeast that does not dry out too much and would enhance the limited malt thats there.

An area of little expertise for me is the water treatments, I know there are  certain combos of minerals that may enhance the malt in a beer

So anyone want to contribute to above and either add ideas or criticise my ideas would be very welcome to do so.

Just a final note, the taste and aroma of the wort which is just showing some krausen tonnight is superb and no better or worse than any other beer so really looking forward to tasting in a week or two.

[Shanna]

Would wort containing unfermentable sugars not cause issues with weight gain instead?

i recently brewed a sub 4% beer and while it has a lot of flavour from the hops and malt it does lack a bit of body despite it having good head retention.

Would it be worthwhile looking at how to remove the alcohol altogether or do something like a shandy or a raddler style drink?

Personally i find the high alcohol beers hard on the head so i try and drink them in smaller amounts.

Shanna

[brenmurph]

Would wort containing unfermentable sugars not cause issues with weight gain instead?

i recently brewed a sub 4% beer and while it has a lot of flavour from the hops and malt it does lack a bit of body despite it having good head retention.

Would it be worthwhile looking at how to remove the alcohol altogether or do something like a shandy or a raddler style drink?

Personally i find the high alcohol beers hard on the head so i try and drink them in smaller amounts.

Shanna

Hi Shanna my aim isnt related to weight loss or calorie intake and just to clarify it does not really matter because if the higher maltose content is converted to alcohol then the calories are in the alcohol rather than the sugar so there is no issues with weight gain. Alcohol contains 7kcal per gram and sugar 3,5kcal / gram.
My agenda is to make natural beers in a natural way with normal craft brew materials and have it taste indistinguishable from standard 4 or 5% beers.
Boiling off the alcohol is not an option as it leaves cooked flavours that to me resemble some of the low alcohol commercials especially some of the weissbiers that I dont like and my aim is to make low alc just as I make any other beer. i dont want post-processing and I want beers with body, head retention and flavour with about half the alcohol. I want my guests to be able to enjoy a couple of pints and not fear driving home. My experiments with my breathalysers shows me that its virtually impossible for me to come even close to the driving limit with one pint of 2% beer per hour ( 1/2 pint standard beer) this is an advantage for me personallt as I like beer and enjoy one with breakfast, dinner or tea

lastly I like beer not alcohol

[DEMPSEY]

One issue with aroma hoppy beers is you really need a good malt base,1055+ to support the hops. If you load up on hops with a light malt base it wont taste right.

[Tom]

Charlie Papazian, in one of his books, recommends brewing a small volume of high gravity beer and diluting with deoxygenated water before packaging. This apparently gives the beer the ester profile you'll miss with a low gravity beer. Completely different method than the one you're going down, but perhaps valid as another route.

With a low alc. hoppy brew, if you have the malt flavour (from the Viennas and Munichs etc) won't that balance it out all the same?

[brenmurph]

@ dempsey agree, but "right" is different for everyone. @ tom. Good point ive read that before think in michael jacksons texts. Shud b easy to experiment wit waterin down but i guess they may come out watery unless very full flavoured b4 diluting, also wud need to b med high or high body b4 diluting

[DEMPSEY]

@ dempsey agree, but "right" is different gor everyone. @ tom. Good point ive read that before think in michaels jacksons texts. Shud b easy to experiment wit watrin down but i guess they may come out watry unless very full flavoured b4 diluting, also wud need to b med high or high body b4 diluting

Are you sure your drinking - 4% beer

[Tom]

Probably more difficult to control too.

Funny, I've been brewing c.4% beers for ages, and tomorrow I'm about to brew my first RIS. I tend to go for session beers rather than headcrackers.

[brenmurph]

Thanks shane for the motivational link
I have the third low alcohol beer on right now, its a light bodied version of one of the full bodied  2% beers I made yesterday.

Will have all these in Lucan next time I'd say. They will be a 10 day brew as fermenting time is short but as Michael jackson said in an article I read yesterday...store them cold and let them mellow and time vastly improves low alcohol beers....not forgetting the fact that low abv may have a shorter shelf life, however again with more later hops for aroma and good storage shelf life can be a few months. we will see. I will be making one abv reduced beer every week so should build a nice collection.

Thanks for the comments....more appreciated