My very low ABV Super Ultra-Mild Ale

I recently set up my kegging system, and I thought it would be a good idea to brew something very low in alcohol because I knew I would want to be pouring something out of my kegs almost constantly while the excitement of the new system is dominating my mind.

So, the brew I chose was this English Mild. This was also my first all grain BIAB beer.

I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I ended up with an OG of 1.026 and an FG of 1.012. This was after 10 days fermentation, and rousing the WLP-002 twice. I wasn't really worried about this because I was looking for low abv anyway.

So I kegged it up a few days ago and the flavor is that of a lightly sweetened iced tea, with a light carbonation. It really is a pleasant refreshing drink. There is a slight hop bitterness, and a subtle sweetness that really seems like the tea flavor profile.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this experience. If anyone has a good low ABV beer that they have enjoyed I would love to hear about it.

1.026 isn't too far off for an OG depending on your efficiency. At 75% you'd expect 1.029.

That high of a final gravity would (for me) point to a really high mash temperature, according to the recipe 154. I would go even lower on that to get more conversion to short chain sugars.

I usually mash my biter/mild in the 148 range so they are very fermentable .

Do you know what your mash temperature was?

It started off pretty close to 155. My thermometer isn't the best. Seems to be calibrated well but it's the thermometer that came with the turkey fryer setup, so 5 degrees of dial movement is about 1/16 inch. About half way through it had dropped into the upper 140's and I heated it back up to 155.

And here's one that I have brewed several times and always like



3.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)
0.25 lb Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM)
1.60 lb Lyle's Golden Syrup
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 50. Hop
1.10 Items Whirlfloc Tablet
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [6.60 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale


Mash @150 for 60 minutes and then boild for 90 minutes.

The Golden Syrup is an invert sugar and provides for a nice dry finish. You could substitute white sugar or maybe even honey might be interesting.

That looks interesting. Is that really calling for 1.1 tablets of whirlfloc?
My LHBS has several kinds of foil packs of syrup. I'll have to look up the Lyle's and see how it compares.

Culinarytracker said:

That looks interesting. Is that really calling for 1.1 tablets of whirlfloc?
My LHBS has several kinds of foil packs of syrup. I'll have to look up the Lyle's and see how it compares.

Click to expand...

That's just my stupid config in beersmith, it's really just 1 tablet.

Lyles is an English syrup used like we use fake maple syrup in the states.

http://www.lylesgoldensyrup.com/

Probably closer to light corn syrup than a belgian candi syrup.