I'm researching historical "small" beer for purposes of reenactment and coming up with a good-tasting, low-alcohol beer that can be enjoyed all day without all that messy passing out business. Has anyone tried this before? (Nothing came up in a search). Here's what I've got going so far (I'm doing 1 gallon batches in case I need to pour it out):
--Add 2 lbs. American 2-row barley, 2 oz. Cascade hops, and 4 oz. Chocolate Malt to 1 gal. of water and boil for 1 hour. Cool, strain, pour into fermenter, top up with water, pitch some yeast, let ferment for 1 week, prime and bottle for 2 weeks (This makes a batch of regular beer).
--Take the "spent" grain and hops from the previous step, add 1 gal water and boil again. Again, cool, strain, pour into another fermenter, top up with water, pitch some yeast, let ferment for 1 week, prime and bottle for 2. This becomes the batch of small beer.
The small beer I came up with is 2.5% ABV (matching estimates of historical small beer) and fermenting away nicely. Hopefully using all-grain (or at least all-barley, if I have to make bigger batches than I want to go whole-grain for), will keep the beer flavorful enough without the extra malt.
Anyway, let me know what you think- I'll continue to experiment if this batch comes out bad, but wanted to hear if anyone had any other advice for making low-alcohol beer.
--Add 2 lbs. American 2-row barley, 2 oz. Cascade hops, and 4 oz. Chocolate Malt to 1 gal. of water and boil for 1 hour. Cool, strain, pour into fermenter, top up with water, pitch some yeast, let ferment for 1 week, prime and bottle for 2 weeks (This makes a batch of regular beer).
--Take the "spent" grain and hops from the previous step, add 1 gal water and boil again. Again, cool, strain, pour into another fermenter, top up with water, pitch some yeast, let ferment for 1 week, prime and bottle for 2. This becomes the batch of small beer.
The small beer I came up with is 2.5% ABV (matching estimates of historical small beer) and fermenting away nicely. Hopefully using all-grain (or at least all-barley, if I have to make bigger batches than I want to go whole-grain for), will keep the beer flavorful enough without the extra malt.
Anyway, let me know what you think- I'll continue to experiment if this batch comes out bad, but wanted to hear if anyone had any other advice for making low-alcohol beer.