Proven recipe for Low Alcohol/Low Cal beer?

J A

J A

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Show me your table beers and lawnmower specials! I'm going to put together something that will be a good substitute for Budweiser 55 (perhaps the worst tasting beer in the world). Lone Star was making one called 24/7 but it didn't stick around. That one was actually pretty drinkable if not particularly exciting. Ice cold on a hot day, it went down very easy and the flavor was very acceptable. Sticking to that beer for a week or more and not making any other significant changes actually took off 5 lbs and I need to do more along those lines. :D :D
Two main questions come to mind when contemplating this type of beer:
1) Full strength wort and dilute (either pre or post boil) vs small grist/thin sparge?
2) Enzyme or no enzyme?

I'm thinking of a lager/Pilsner-blonde style at below 3% and with 65 or fewer calories but I'd like to see any recipes that have turned out a good and tasty light beer.

Whadaya got?
 
David Heath has video on a low ABV IPA that might be worth looking at, including a link to a Lallemand paper about brewing low ABV. The recommendation was, if I remember correctly, to mash high... and really high, like 80C or so, to get ABV under 1%. Perhaps that't too low for you...
 
Brewed this a couple of times and it turned out quite nice. It would definitely scale down to 3% or below. If I was brewing it again now I would probably use S04 and would push the 15 min hop addition back to 10 min to eliminate any astringency. I would only use Fuggles because I had some on hand, that said it's a really low IBU beer so Fuggles would be a good choice too.

Title: T'table Beer

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Table Beer
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 74 liters (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 80 liters
Boil Gravity: 1.029
Efficiency: 85% (brew house)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.031
Final Gravity: 1.006
ABV (standard): 3.33%
IBU (tinseth): 23.61
SRM (morey): 4.23
Mash pH: 0

FERMENTABLES:
4 kg - Munich (45.7%)
4 kg - Maris Otter Pale (45.7%)
750 g - Torrified Wheat (8.6%)

HOPS:
50 g - Fuggles, Type: Pellet, AA: 4.5, Use: First Wort, IBU: 10.25
50 g - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 13.36
100 g - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days
100 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Dry Hop for 3 days

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
 
J A said:
Show me your table beers and lawnmower specials! I'm going to put together something that will be a good substitute for Budweiser 55 (perhaps the worst tasting beer in the world). Lone Star was making one called 24/7 but it didn't stick around. That one was actually pretty drinkable if not particularly exciting. Ice cold on a hot day, it went down very easy and the flavor was very acceptable. Sticking to that beer for a week or more and not making any other significant changes actually took off 5 lbs and I need to do more along those lines. :D :D
Two main questions come to mind when contemplating this type of beer:
1) Full strength wort and dilute (either pre or post boil) vs small grist/thin sparge?
2) Enzyme or no enzyme?

I'm thinking of a lager/Pilsner-blonde style at below 3% and with 65 or fewer calories but I'd like to see any recipes that have turned out a good and tasty light beer.

Whadaya got?
Click to expand...
The Grodziskie turns out to be very nice at low alcohol levels... But a few ideas, mash high, add sugar, adjuncts.... Seems to work for me.
 
My favourite low ABV beer is a dry hopped kettle sour - https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/675747/tiny-wild. Calories are around 70-90 for a 330ml if I hit my numbers. I'm going against some of the standard low ABV approaches, but that's because I'm using the acid and the dry hop to make up for the lack of flavour from the malt. Helps to keep the calories down as well.
 
J A said:
1) Full strength wort and dilute (either pre or post boil) vs small grist/thin sparge
Click to expand...

Check out this episode of Experimental Brewing. To your point, there's mention by Drew Beechum about diluting that made me feel better about the error I pulled a couple weeks ago with the red ale I was brewing and added about two extra gallons of sparge water. I still got beer, it still tastes good....and now...it's a session...yeah...a session beer...that's the ticket!

https://www.experimentalbrew.com/podcast/episode-9-session-session-whats-your-libation
 
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Has anyone tried “Non Enzymatic Mashing”? Essentially cold steeping your grains and running that off to boil. There was a great presentation on this at the 2016 home brew-con. Here’s a couple of screen captures to get the gist of the process. Check out the whole seminar if you get time, very interesting.

3DC84188-73C3-456D-B523-5B83A1D649CE.jpeg



C5AD41B2-6C87-4579-9215-E90382D7AC0F.jpeg
 
To clarify a bit more, the speaker presented many applications for this type of mashing, not just to make low ABV beers. One that I found very interesting was using the wort from the Non- Enzymatic Mash as the water for another mash.
 
For low ABV, we're pretty much stuck with low amounts of extract. We don't have any good way to remove alcohol. English Milds can run pretty low.
 
Nosybear said:
For low ABV, we're pretty much stuck with low amounts of extract. We don't have any good way to remove alcohol. English Milds can run pretty low.
Click to expand...
ABV is sort of secondary to lower calories for me. Therefore the higher mash with lower attenuation doesn't necessarily get me where I'd like to be with it. I'll see about brewing something with plenty of Vienna to retain some malty flavor and see how much I can dilute it without making it too boring. Anything will beat the Select 55 stuff! :D :D
 
J A said:
ABV is sort of secondary to lower calories for me. Therefore the higher mash with lower attenuation doesn't necessarily get me where I'd like to be with it. I'll see about brewing something with plenty of Vienna to retain some malty flavor and see how much I can dilute it without making it too boring. Anything will beat the Select 55 stuff! :D :D
Click to expand...
I hear there's an article in BYO this month on exactly that subject...
 
I’ve only brewed this once, but it was tasty and well received:

Light Yardwork Ale

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Light Lager
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 2.8 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 4.32 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.020
Efficiency: 60% (brew house)

Hop Utilization Multiplier: 1

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.032
Final Gravity: 1.005
ABV (standard): 3.5%
IBU (tinseth): 13.67
SRM (morey): 2.96
Mash pH: 5.12

FERMENTABLES:
1.75 lb - Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsner (44.9%)
1.75 lb - Pilsner (44.9%)
4 oz - Corn Sugar - Dextrose - (late boil kettle addition) (6.4%)
2 oz - Flaked Oats (3.2%)
0.33 oz - Caramel Munich 60L (0.5%)

HOPS:
1 g - Galena, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 4.08
3 g - Galena, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 6.07
0.33 oz - Mosaic, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Whirlpool for 0 min at 180 °F, IBU: 3.53
2.5 oz - Mosaic, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
 
Rockhead said:
I’ve only brewed this once, but it was tasty and well received:

Light Yardwork Ale

Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: American Light Lager
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 2.8 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 4.32 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.020
Efficiency: 60% (brew house)

Hop Utilization Multiplier: 1

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.032
Final Gravity: 1.005
ABV (standard): 3.5%
IBU (tinseth): 13.67
SRM (morey): 2.96
Mash pH: 5.12

FERMENTABLES:
1.75 lb - Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsner (44.9%)
1.75 lb - Pilsner (44.9%)
4 oz - Corn Sugar - Dextrose - (late boil kettle addition) (6.4%)
2 oz - Flaked Oats (3.2%)
0.33 oz - Caramel Munich 60L (0.5%)

HOPS:
1 g - Galena, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 4.08
3 g - Galena, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 15 min, IBU: 6.07
0.33 oz - Mosaic, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Whirlpool for 0 min at 180 °F, IBU: 3.53
2.5 oz - Mosaic, Type: Pellet, AA: 12.5, Use: Dry Hop for 4 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
Temp: 152 F, Time: 60 min

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Click to expand...
That's an interesting mix of ingredience.
 
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Been listening to this podcast today on LOW/NO alcohol brewing.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5S...i=JA9whaTgTcmhPyI1NarPAw&utm_source=copy-link
Using yeast collected from Sourdough culture to ferment at ultra low temperatures to produce beer with near 0% ABV beer
And this yeast is Available commercially anyhow what it's called I can't pronounce off the top of my head.

Worth a listen if only for the info I'm not sure that yeast is available for hombrewing.
 
Trialben said:
Been listening to this podcast today on LOW/NO alcohol brewing.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5S...i=JA9whaTgTcmhPyI1NarPAw&utm_source=copy-link
Using yeast collected from Sourdough culture to ferment at ultra low temperatures to produce beer with near 0% ABV beer
And this yeast is Available commercially anyhow what it's called I can't pronounce off the top of my head.

Worth a listen if only for the info I'm not sure that yeast is available for hombrewing.
Click to expand...
If you come across the name please let me know. Also, the fermentation temperature. It is difficult for me to access some websites......function of where I live.
 
Robert68 said:
If you come across the name please let me know. Also, the fermentation temperature. It is difficult for me to access some websites......function of where I live.
Click to expand...
I know fermentation temperature guess what yup 0c - 1c the test beer in that podcast wad fermented at 1c CRAZY LOW!

This isolated yeast strain can ferment that low.
I guess when you think of sourdough culture that it's able to ferment in the fridge

I'll go have a listen again
 
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