Low(er) Alcohol Tasty Recipe?

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micmacmoc
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Low(er) Alcohol Tasty Recipe?

Post by micmacmoc » Fri Sep 11, 2020 8:47 am

I wonder if anyone out there could help me towards brewing a lower alcohol ,<3.5%ABV, beer. I'm thinking a darker brew so it appears to have more body. I have looked at mild ales from Graham's book, I quite fancy a lower alcohol mild or even a porter. Is there a way of mashing at a higher or lower temperature to cause some of the wort not to ferment?
I have been trying the commercial 0.5% beers, any recommendations? They are improved on what used to be available but still lacking compared to what must be possible! Hence my trying to keep a bit more alcohol to make it interesting but not enough to annoy the finger wagging medical types!

Rookie
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Re: Low(er) Alcohol Tasty Recipe?

Post by Rookie » Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:10 pm

Mash at a higher temperature, use a good percentage of specialty grains, and pitch a low attenuating yeast.
I'm just here for the beer.

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PeeBee
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Re: Low(er) Alcohol Tasty Recipe?

Post by PeeBee » Sat Sep 12, 2020 1:49 am

By "mash at higher temperature" that can mean a lot higher than you might think. 74-75C is not too high. Creates unfermentable dextrin, which also provides body and mouth feel.

At the other end you can try "cold extraction". "Mashing" (it's not really, there's no real conversion) overnight at below 10C before runoff and heating to over 69-74C for 20-30mins to convert any suspended starch. You can use 3-4 times the base grain this way (extracting colour and flavour but not much sugar extract) but there is the risk of extracting loads of protein which breaks out of solution at a boil and burns out the element (seriously!). The proteins provide body and mouth feel.

Crystal malts provide additional body and dextrin. Ignore "rules" that limit how much you should use.

Safbrew S-33 is my favourite (dried) low attenuating yeast. Attenuation in the range of 30-35% is quite feasible.



<EDIT: The subject got quite a going over here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=81739>
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

micmacmoc
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Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:49 pm

Re: Low(er) Alcohol Tasty Recipe?

Post by micmacmoc » Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:20 pm

Thanks folks, will do further reading and report back, cheers!

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