Please Suggest Ingredients for Light Style Beer

Can anyone suggest ingredients for Light style beer ? I've tried a couple of recipes and even though I end up with good beer, I don't end up with "light" beer.

It was my understanding that Rice Syrup would make a nice light beer, but the beers I made with that didn't turn out "light" at all. I ended up with a fantastic lawnmower type beer, but not really a "light" beer. I would definitely repeat the recipe, but I'd like to take another swing at "light" beer since I'm trying to make beer that my brother and sister will drink too.

Maybe cutting back on the Malt Extract is in order ?

Any suggestions ?

add water

in all seriousness though, i hope someone can help ya

Use extra light extract and rice syrup. Keep the alcohol content below 4.0% ABV.

The yeast should be a very clean fermenting strain, preferably a lager yeast fermented low in the temperature range. A clean ale yeast may work if you ferment a little cool.

Easy on the hops, also. 25 IBU max, and just a touch of finishing hops (1 oz or less for a 5 gallon batch).

What do you mean by light? Light in color? light in body? Light in alcohol? Or light in flavor? I am not trying to patronize you, you can make beers that could be called light if only light in one respect.

I make light colored regular strength beers from time to time.

I boil 1.5 gals and add 1 lb of malt to my boil with hops. Boil 45 mins, remove the pot fro the heat, add the remainder of the malt and dissolve. From there you can either boil another 15 mins or just let it steep for 15.

Since the malt is not re-cooked it doesn't get any darker (carmelize) resulting in a light (colored) brew.

Search for the late addition method.

Is this what you are looking to achieve?

Dry malt extract tends to be lighter in color than liquid extract (especially as the LME ages). If you must use LME, find a source that has FRESH extract (usually a big online shop). Buy the lightest DME that you can find. Use lighter crystal malts (10L - 20L).

Thanks for the replys. To clarify what I meant... I'm looking for light in the sense of "low calorie".

Mutilated1 said:

Thanks for the replys. To clarify what I meant... I'm looking for light in the sense of "low calorie".

Click to expand...

Your OG pretty much determines the calorie content, so you either need to brew a really low OG beer (like 1.030), or brew something bigger and water it down to get a lower "effective" OG.

Papazian has a recipe for a watered-down "light" beer in CJOHB (quarterbock, I think it's called). IIRC, he suggests some things to keep the FG of the original undiluted beer fairly high, so tat after you water it down it doesn't taste like...well, water

Best use of time for the "light" beer is to pick up a 30pk for $10.99 somewhere.

This Kolsch I put together turned out delicious, light, and crisp. I mashed around 151F.


[size=+2]First Kolsch[/size]
[size=+1]6-C Kölsch[/size]



Size: 5.54 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 136.95 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.041 (1.044 - 1.050)
|#===============================|
Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (1.007 - 1.011)
|=====================#==========|
Color: 4.2 (3.5 - 5.0)
|==============#=================|
Alcohol: 4.05% (4.4% - 5.2%)
|=#==============================|
Bitterness: 22.41 (20.0 - 30.0)
|===========#====================|

[size=+1]Ingredients:[/size]
5 lbs Pilsner Malt
3 lbs Vienna Malt
1 lbs German CaraFoam
1 oz Spalt Spalter (4.7%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Hallertau Tradition (4.2%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
1 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 5 min
.5 oz Hallertau Tradition (4.2%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1 ea WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast

[size=+1]Schedule:[/size]
Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:31:24 Mash In - Liquor: 2.81 gal; Strike: 163.4 °F; Target: 151 °F
01:31:24 Saccharification Rest - Rest: 60.0 min; Final: 145.9 °F
01:41:02 Mash Out - Heat: 9.6 min; Target: 168.0 °F
02:26:02 Sparge - Sparge: 5.1 gal sparge @ 170.0 °F, 5.85 gal collected, 45.0 min; Total Runoff: 6.0 gal

[size=-1]Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.0.28[/size]

marosell said:

add water

in all seriousness though, i hope someone can help ya

Click to expand...

LOL! ROTFLOL! That's the way to start the day, with a good laugh!