A Light Beer

Hello

I'm new and working with liquid extracts. I wish to make a light beer for my wife on my third batch.

This it what I was thinking of.

8 lbs Briss golden Light LME
2 oz Cascade Pellet Hops 30 min in boil
1 oz Kent Goldings last 2 Min in and out of boil
Muntons Premium Gold dry yeast

Let me know what you think

Paul

If by "light" you mean a relatively low alcohol, that's way too much extract. A light hybrid would use 3 or 4 lbs of LME and maybe one ounce of hops total.

If you mean low carbohydrate, it is difficult to make one using extract.

Do you mean light in color or light in alcohol? While the color on that beer is light, the ABV comes out at 5.6%

I mean light in flavor, as in a miller light or Bud light. Not a ale heavy taste or to maulty.

Paul

I would change it to 5 lbs LME, 1 oz cascade @ 60 minutes, possibly better yeast, and leave everything else the same. But that's just me.
ABV 3.5%
Calories per pint 157

yokomo said:

1 oz Kent Goldings last 2 Min in and out of boil

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I've never seen that in instructions before. What does that mean?

I'd suggest lowering the hops significantly, and adding some steeping grains. You probably don't want flavor/aroma hops, if you're looking for a lighter flavor. How about this (from Jamil Zainasheff):

8 pounds light LME

.5 pound crystal 15L

1 ounce willamette 60 minutes

"Clean" ale yeast at a cool temperature- like S05 at 65 degrees, or WLP001, or nottingham at 62 degrees.

That recipe is for a full boil. If you want to do a smaller boil (like a 3 gallon boil), you could do the same thing, but add only 3 pounds of extract at the beginning, and the remaining 5 pounds at flame out. That way it's a lighter color, and you get all of the goodness out of the hops.

Commercial light beers use enzymes to reduce the complex malt sugars. You can get the same effect by replacing some of your LME with dextrose or cane sugar.

(Don't forget Yooper is a female ice hockey player. Her idea of light is heavy-duty.)

david_42 said:

(Don't forget Yooper is a female ice hockey player. Her idea of light is heavy-duty.)

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Um, thanks?

I just looked at Jamil's recipe, and that looked ok to me. It won't be "light" in the sense of body or ABV, but it will be light in hops flavor.

I think we all have different ideas of what "light" is in a beer. I think a cream ale or blonde ale is light, while others don't.

David is right, of course. For a truly "light" beer, you'd want to replace some of the malt with corn sugar or even rice syrup. That would give a lighter texture and flavor and less body. Much more like a commercial light beer.

If you want a "light" type beer, you will also need to cut it with an adjunct to thin the body. SInce you are an extract brewer then take david's suggestion of 3-4 pounds lme, but also add a pound of rice syrup solids. Then you will be using an adjunct common to those types of beers.