Brewing alcohol free

Share your experiences of using brewing yeast.
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Kingfisher4
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Re: Brewing alcohol free

Post by Kingfisher4 » Wed May 20, 2020 2:54 pm

Mike-T wrote:
Wed May 20, 2020 1:25 pm
I read this thread and got a little excited at the prospect of producing good almost alcohol free beer. I haven’t brewed for a few years, but am keen to get back into it now, particularly brewing low alcohol beers.

I took in a lot of PeeBee’s advice here and much thanks is owed for taking the time to share this info.

I ended up brewing this:

.6 kg Rye Malt
.3kg Light Munich
.2kg light Crystal
.2 kg flaked oats

Mash 60 min’s @73’c

9gms Nelson Sauvin 30 mins
9gms Nelson Sauvin at flameout
1/2 Whirlfloc tablet

OG: 1.011
FG: 1.005
ABV circa 0.7%

Brewed: 7-5-20 in keg (it fermented overnight with S-04 yeast)
I left it for a further 3 days and rechecked gravity before moving to fridge

Had a little sample and as PeeBee said, it was very bitter. I dry hopped it with 25 gms Nelson Sauvin on 11-5-20

Just having a pint now and it’s very drinkable, still a little “empty” but much better than a Heineken zero ( by far the best available here in Oz.)

I will definitely brew this one again, next time I may go larger with the dry hopping and maybe go for Cascade or Mosaic to hopefully give a bit more fruitiness.

Overall a very nice ultra low alcohol beer
So glad you were enthused by this thread Mike.

There is lots we can learn from one another in this area. I also owe a lot to PeeBee for pointing the way. I have been getting high mash efficiencies from a 40 minute mash, no sparge and only use a 30 minute boil. Any Bittering hop goes in much later, most of the hops I use are added as a hop stand at about 79°C. The BU:GU ratio was a really useful concept. I would certainly recommend trying the S-33 yeast.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect is that this very low gravity beer seems to get better and better over a number of months in the bottles.

Mike-T
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Re: Brewing alcohol free

Post by Mike-T » Thu May 21, 2020 12:44 am

Thanks for that Kingfisher4.

I will try your recommendations next time I brew this (which will be soon).

I will definitely try that yeast next time for comparison. So, with the hopstand , how long do you hold the temperature at 79’c. I remember reading about the hop whirlpool, but my Guten doesn’t have this facility, hence the hop boil and steep.

Kingfisher4
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Location: Derbyshire, UK

Re: Brewing alcohol free

Post by Kingfisher4 » Thu May 21, 2020 12:24 pm

Mike-T wrote:
Thu May 21, 2020 12:44 am


I will definitely try that yeast next time for comparison. So, with the hopstand , how long do you hold the temperature at 79’c. I remember reading about the hop whirlpool, but my Guten doesn’t have this facility, hence the hop boil and steep.
I have a Grainfather, so it is easy to re-circulate and drop the temperature to 79°. I prefer leaf hops in the grainfather. I steep them for 25-30 minutes before transferring via the counterflow chiller to my fermenting vessel. Following Peebees helpful advice, pretending I use a 10 minute hop stand In the Grainfather software approximates to the bitterness added, it can’t compensate for reduced hop stand temperature. It assumes the hop stand is at 100°C at flameout.
Hope that makes sense.

Mike-T
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Re: Brewing alcohol free

Post by Mike-T » Fri May 22, 2020 6:50 am

So re-circulate means pumping the wort back through? I can do that 😊

Kingfisher4
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Re: Brewing alcohol free

Post by Kingfisher4 » Fri May 22, 2020 5:48 pm

Mike-T wrote:
Fri May 22, 2020 6:50 am
So re-circulate means pumping the wort back through? I can do that 😊
Yes, through the chiller, back into the Grainfather. Easily drops temperature to the 79 ish needed for hop stand. Apparently at this temp the volatile elements of the hops which give aroma / flavour aren’t vapourised, or perhaps the rate is slow. Science is complex, but optimises flavour and aroma without too much increase in bitterness.

Mike-T
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Re: Brewing alcohol free

Post by Mike-T » Sun May 24, 2020 4:00 am

That’s great advice. Much appreciated. 😊

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