The trick to a great low-alcohol brew?

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Nugent

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Part of coming to terms with a problem is admitting it. Twelve steps, right?

My name is nugent and I really like lower alcohol beer. No, no, no ... I'm not talking terrible, mass-produced, "tastes great, less filling" swill. I'm talking beer that has been brewed - with the lower ABV in mind deliberately.

I was in the UK this summer and had some fabulous ales, many of which were < 4.0% ABV. Some of them blew me away - hoppy, malty, interesting and not watery and meaningless like C**rs L***t or Key****e L***t. Finding lower ABV brews in North America (yes, Canada too) is a challenge. From my experience, a brewer of really good lower alc beers takes the aspect of the flavour profile, that alcohol clearly provides, in mind when producing it. I'm in the process of working with different malts, hop types and addition times and yeast. I've started using yeast starters and fermentation control too. My question is really focused on the process.

The collective know-how on this forum could power a city for a year, so I'm looking for your wisdom on what you do or what you think should be done to really develop a deliberately-low OG brew into a fantastic finished product that make people go WOWSA!!! Please chime in regardless of style. I'm going to brew British-style ales, but brewing is brewing ultimately. Please don't be shy!

Thanks as always, HBTers. :mug:
 
Oh, a British mild is a great beer! It's a session beer, where you can actually sit and drink half a dozen or so without any problem. I love them.

We had a mild swap last fall, and there were some wonderful milds. I made Jamil's recipe from Brewing Classic Styles, I believe, and the ABV was 3.2%. It was still a wonderfully flavorfull and rich beer, and I was very happy with it.
 
Kentucky Common man. My first I way overshot efficiency due to the 24hr mash, so it ended up being 6.1%. Second I dropped the base malt 1lb and it was 5.2%. Next I am brewing completely to style (Wednesday). Should be low to mid 4% with my efficiency, with a 6.75lb grain bill. Style guidelines at 10-11 Balling, so 1.039-1.043 roughly OG. Check out the links in my sig for more info on it if interested. I'm not sure how this next one is going to be, but we'll see in a few weeks. It was huge before prohibition. 80% of the beer around here was KY Common. I was doing 4oz of chocolate malt and 4oz of crystal, but dropping it to 2oz to abide by the style. The recipe is the second post in the link my my sig, along with the others.

Never had a mild, but people seem to really like them.
 
Milds are great! I made one earlier in the year and really liked it. Actually, in my noobish knowledge of beer styles in the past (i.e. 2008), I thought that a mild was any low-alcohol beer :eek:. Not that I'm anywhere near knowledgeable now, though :).

I was told by my LHBS guru that higher mash temps (slightly < 154* F) will create more mouthfeel and body, but what other things are there to consider in this case?

Do malt types or hop additions help make a low alc brew 'fuller' or is it more part of the mash?

Thanks to Revvy and YooperBrew for chiming in so quickly on this. Expertise is why I always start and move forward on this forum.

:mug:
 
I've got a great porter on tap with a bunch of chocolate wheat that came out to 3.6% alcohol. Non-fermentable grains can be used to add flavor and mouthfeel without bumping ABV.
 
Here in Utah all the beer in the regular stores are 4% ABV or less. It's surprising how close some of the big breweries can brew their major brands with lower gravities. I wish I know how they do it.
 
I <3 Mild! :D

It's one of my favorite styles to brew, as a matter of fact.

Because both the alcohol and carbonation level is so low, you need to boost the body to keep the delicate flavors from simply vaporizing on your palate.

Crystal malts and character malts like Vienna and Munich will boost body, as will mash temperatures that favor alpha-amylase and longer dextrin chains. I personally mash my mild at 158° for 40 minutes.
 
How do they do it, according to my brewere friends at Miller / Coors they start with beer that is 7 - 8 % abv and then water it down.
I have tried the same trick, but have been unhappy with the results.
 
How do they do it, according to my brewere friends at Miller / Coors they start with beer that is 7 - 8 % abv and then water it down.

I would guess that is why it tastes thin and watery.

Besides mild, I like an alt beer (the German version of a session beer) and lower ABV blonde ales, too.
 
Whether it be a Mild or an Ordinary Bitter, start with Marris Otter as a base malt and use English or English-like hops. Then choose an English yeast and fermentation temperature that suits the flavors you're trying to achieve (esters/phenols, etc.). Designing Great Beers has some good info on brewing these styles.
 
I find adding some rye (10-15%) can make for great small beers. Ordinary Bitters run 3-3.5% and can be extremely refreshing. Fermenting at the low-end for the yeast is also a good idea.
 
As was touched on earlier, one of the tricks in the process is mashing high. Maybe 154-156. This will put a lot of unfermentables in your wort and produce a lower alcohol beer with more body.

There are a lot of styles which you could probably formulate to work, flavor wise, changing them into session beers.

Cheers

~r~
 
I just made my first mild and it really turned out pretty good. No special tricks or anything, just a decent recipe.
 
old bump... but this was the only thread i found on the topic i was looking for...

so, there was some general advice in this thread about making a low alc beer. but...

the OG doesn't matter so much as the FG? If i have an FG of 1.012 or so from an OG of of 1.04, will it have a similar feeling of density/body as a beer of FG 1.012 from a higher OG?

ive only made one low alc beer before and it was accidental and i wasn't too happy with the body or balance of it. FG i think was about 1.008, alc around 4, and too bitter for what it was. go ahead and disagree with me on having it too bitter if you want ...

so, what are some suggestions for making a thick low alc? a ton of crystal? unmalted grains? wheat? a certain yeast or high mashtemp?
 
A lower attenuation yeast, such as Windsor, is helpful. It leaves more sweetness/body behind.

Higher mash temps do the same.

I presently have a 3.8% Hefeweizen that tastes as good or better than a stronger version. It is light, but still very flavorful. To me, it is everything a summer beer should be.

Beer is supposed to be about hospitality. I have never had anybody taste one of my beers and call it watery. And yet, they can walk out of my place after a few hours of relaxing and still function.

I don't even like the drunken stupor anymore... But man do I love to put away a few good pints!

The beers finish sooner, are ready quickly, and taste great and fairly true to whatever style you desire.
 
I've had good luck brewing lowering ABV Pales (<4%) and then dry-hopping the bejesus out of them in the keg. Adds a lot of flavor (though no body).

Another vote for mashing high - really helps to round out the mouthfeel.

Think it would be interesting to try to get a low ABV by brewing an 8% beer and splitting it into two batches with boiled water. I'm going to try that soon.
 
For low ABV beers I Mash High, Mash Thin, and use a low attenuating yeast (I like WLP008 for American style ales WLP002 for English ales)

I also believe that your recipe should be some what simple... There is not a ton of character to hide behind in low OG beers.. If you try and make a kitchen sink beer it will come out muddled...
 
One thing that I would add that hasn't been mentioned yet is getting some kettle caramelization for color and flavor. Mash high, drain a gallon of your first runnings and boil that down as much as you can in a separate pot while you're doing the regular boil with everything else and then add it back at the end. This may not be appropriate for all styles, but I just did a Scottish Ale at about 4.3% ABV and it tasted great!
 
One thing that I would add that hasn't been mentioned yet is getting some kettle caramelization for color and flavor. Mash high, drain a gallon of your first runnings and boil that down as much as you can in a separate pot while you're doing the regular boil with everything else and then add it back at the end. This may not be appropriate for all styles, but I just did a Scottish Ale at about 4.3% ABV and it tasted great!

I like this idea, it should add some toasty/caramel flavor. I"ll give it a try on one of my next batches.
 
Wow! Great zombie post.

In the few years since I posted I have found that the following things help build up a low alcohol beer:

1. No sparge with the mash - gets really tasty maltiness out of the grist, but does require a larger grain bill due to the lower efficiency. Generally, I only get about 63%-65% when I use this method.

2. Use a yeast with character - for example, I use WY1450 for my session Irish Red Rye ale. Accentuates the malt and builds more flavour. I know that a number of HBTers have had a similar experience with this yeast. English and Belgian yeasts have worked very well.

3. Sanitation and being realy really nice to the yeast (appropriate pitching, ferm temp) is key - flaws come through like a punch in the face. Cleanliness, proper fermentation and patience pay many, many dividends.

4. Keep it simple - a really good, flavourful base malt with few, well-selected character malts allows you to taste what each ingredient brings to the finished product, makes for a simply assembled, yet delicious, beer.

Still learning, but have had some success. I tend to consume these brews rather quickly :mug:

Very happy that this discussion is up and running again.
 
i like the two posts about keeping it simple, and the suggestion to mash thin. sadly im still kind of working on consistency of a mash. gonna aim for a low alc belgian of just pale malt and crystal but try all the tricks suggested
 
A lot of things in this podcast have already been mentioned but I listened to this a while back and found it kind of interesting. From the website:

This week my guest is Mike Tonsmeire, aka &#8220;The Mad Fermentationist&#8221;. Mike walks us through the fine art of designing and brewing very low gravity beers called &#8220;Session Beers&#8221;. Session beers are eminently drinkable beers that are still full bodied and enjoyable, without weighing you down.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/09/15/session-beer-with-the-mad-fermentationist-beersmith-podcast-22/
 
My 2 cents, use beer smith find a recipie that suits you and play with the style guide, just keep everything in the green section but just lower the ABV meter, easy as that, you will be able to do any type of beer tou want any style and you will controle you alchol % as you wish :)

Beer smith FTW :)
 
the OG doesn't matter so much as the FG? If i have an FG of 1.012 or so from an OG of of 1.04, will it have a similar feeling of density/body as a beer of FG 1.012 from a higher OG?

To be clear, neither OG nor FG are directly related to alcohol content. Rather, the difference between the two is related to alcohol content. If you want a low alcohol beer, you're going to need your FG and OG to be close to each other.

As far as body and flavor, as a very general rule high OG beers tend to have fuller body, and high FG beers tend to be sweeter. Simply using a lot of grain and stopping the fermentation early is likely to result in nasty sweet swill... But you can get creative with other ways of developing body and flavor, and there's a lot of good advice in this thread to accomplish that.
 
I tend to use the last runnings partigyle style for my session beers and then add some DME. As a general rule, extract doesn't ferment down as low as AG so it leaves another point or two of sweetness behind while still allowing you to mash at a lower temp for your other beer. This allows me to brew my session beers for next to no cost.
 
If you're doing a mild using a higher mash temp makes sense, but if you are doing a bitter, not so much.
 
I've wondered about this, too. After 6 months of hard hangovers and the "wow, this **** is STRONG" comments from fellow drinkers, I decided to make my double batch of Oktoberfest a lower alcohol beer, shooting for 4.5%. I am going to likely come in at about 4%, just because OG wasn't as high as I had hoped--due to getting new equipment and not being fully familiar with it. But I did crank up the mash temp to 154-155, specificaly for the hope that I'd get more body out of it. Mashing at 150 or 151 is making my beers strong and watery, and perhaps the yeast is playing a part in that, too.
 
since the zombie thread has well and truly awoken, i'll add this, i was at a little beer gathering where a couple small commercial brewers and a few homebrewers were pouring, and one homebrew conglomerate was serving a saison, and it was delicious, everything in balance, full of flavor, tart, spicy, dry but with body, super drinkable on a warm day, when i went back for more i asked for the saison, the guy said you mean the 2% abv one? i said no way, the tasty normal one, he said nope that stuff is 2%, i could have hugged him. i know saisons aren't for everyone but it's certainly a style that can happily exist at either end of the abv spectrum if you do it right. got to wait until next summer for me though... time to start on the autumnal big beers!
 
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