I recently saw an article about creating a low alcohol beer by putting the finished beer into an oven at 180 degrees. The idea is, since alcohol boils at about 172, one could reduce the amount of alcohol in a beer.
As my fondness for IIPAs and other strong brews grows, my tolerance for alcohol is waning. So lowering the alcohol this way, unlike brewing a "lite" beer, would seem to be a technique that bears investigation. But there has to be some "gotchas". And I don't really understand the chemistry:
1. How long would it take to reduce the alcohol significantly?
2. At 180 degrees, what is likely to happen to the hop oils? I've read of people adding all the flavor hops at flameout, then delaying cool down in order to get good hop flavor.
3. Is there a relationship between the various hop oils to the quantity of remaining alcohol?
4. I would think aromatics could be re-added by dry hopping in the keg. Thoughts?
Anyone ever tried this?
Rich
As my fondness for IIPAs and other strong brews grows, my tolerance for alcohol is waning. So lowering the alcohol this way, unlike brewing a "lite" beer, would seem to be a technique that bears investigation. But there has to be some "gotchas". And I don't really understand the chemistry:
1. How long would it take to reduce the alcohol significantly?
2. At 180 degrees, what is likely to happen to the hop oils? I've read of people adding all the flavor hops at flameout, then delaying cool down in order to get good hop flavor.
3. Is there a relationship between the various hop oils to the quantity of remaining alcohol?
4. I would think aromatics could be re-added by dry hopping in the keg. Thoughts?
Anyone ever tried this?
Rich