super low alcohol beer

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My kids love to help me bottling.
Unfortunately, they also love the taste of beer.
Has anyone brewed any super low alcohol beer??
.
I was planning to initiate the yeast in a sugar/water mix, add this to the tin of goo and 23 litres of water, and then immediately bottle as per a normal brew.
Will this work and give a drinkable super low alcohol beer??
 
Two things- if it doesn't ferment out, the "beer" will be very sweet since the sugars will be present. Second, if you don't chill all of the bottles as soon as they are carbed up, you'll have bottle bombs.

I make soda, so it'd be very similar. I mix up the soda to taste the way I want, then add the yeast. I bottle in plastic bottles and let the soda sit out until the bottles are hard to the touch and then stick them in the fridge. I guess you're talking about the same principle so it would work the same way, I'd think.
 
It wouldn't be beer, but malted beverages of this type were extremely popular pre-WW1.
 
You could try a technique for making non-alcoholic beer. I've never tried it, but from what I've read, you make the beer the way you normally would, and then you "cook" the alcohol out of the beer by heating it to a specific temp range and holding it there for a period of time. Like I said, I've never tried it and I don't know all of the specifics, but you could probably do a search on the technique. Although, I would also agree with Yooper, you could just try making root beer. There are lots of recipes out there, and the only thing you need beyond the equipment you already have is plastic bottles and twist off caps.
 
My kids love to help me bottling.
Unfortunately, they also love the taste of beer.
Has anyone brewed any super low alcohol beer??
.
I was planning to initiate the yeast in a sugar/water mix, add this to the tin of goo and 23 litres of water, and then immediately bottle as per a normal brew.
Will this work and give a drinkable super low alcohol beer??

this is the recipe from my first brew ever:

1 3.3 lb can of LME
1 oz fuggles hops

i didnt have a hydro back then so im not sure about alc% exactly but i would guess 1.5%. it did not taste well, very dry. some lactose could help, but it is not a recipe i care to go back and try to improve upon :mug:
 
You could try a technique for making non-alcoholic beer. I've never tried it, but from what I've read, you make the beer the way you normally would, and then you "cook" the alcohol out of the beer by heating it to a specific temp range and holding it there for a period of time. Like I said, I've never tried it and I don't know all of the specifics, but you could probably do a search on the technique. Although, I would also agree with Yooper, you could just try making root beer. There are lots of recipes out there, and the only thing you need beyond the equipment you already have is plastic bottles and twist off caps.



I agree with cooking the alcohol out. You could try this after fermentation after you actually have alcohol in your brew. Just put it in a pot and try to maintain the temp at about 175 (boiling point of EtOH is 173.1 F).

My only concern here would be that you could also cook out some of the more volatile flavor compounds in beer. But hey, this could be a fantastic idea.
 
Six responses and no one bashing you for wanting to give your kids beer! Love this forum :D

Not sure how old they are, but would they not suffice with the occasional sip? That's all I got when I was young, but I also hated beer because my dad didn't drink the good stuff back then.
 
I was told by a German guy that they cut beers with sprite, for kids.
 
A beer cut with Sprite (aka lemonade in England) is called a shandy. They come in two varieties, bitter shandy and lager shandy.

Funny story: when back visiting family in England last year, my dear SWMBO thought people were asking for a 'bit of shandy'.
 
Six responses and no one bashing you for wanting to give your kids beer! Love this forum :D

Not sure how old they are, but would they not suffice with the occasional sip? That's all I got when I was young, but I also hated beer because my dad didn't drink the good stuff back then.

I'm more surprised no-one has bashed you for even TRYING to make beer with low alcohol.:D

It's pretty easy to make an american wheat beer with less than 4% alcohol that still tastes pretty good (I live in Utah, where all the store bought beer is under 4%). Give them a bit of that "shandy" as a treat and I think you should have budding alcoholics in no time.

I keed, I keed. ;)

I think instilling healthy attitudes about alcohol at an early age is a good thing. Parental teaching opportunity!
 
Six responses and no one bashing you for wanting to give your kids beer! Love this forum :D

Not sure how old they are, but would they not suffice with the occasional sip? That's all I got when I was young, but I also hated beer because my dad didn't drink the good stuff back then.

My dad has always drunk the good stuff, but I didn't like beer as a kid. Children's palates are more sensitive, so the bitterness of hops tends to be overwhelming for them. Of course the fact my dad favored IPA's made that even more so.
 
I wasn't intending to put anywhere near the initial charge of sugar. Just enough to get the yeast started.
I understand that if the primary isn't finished when you bottle then bottle bombs are just around the corner. I was thinking of all but cutting out the primary fermentation.


I'm more surprised no-one has bashed you for even TRYING to make beer with low alcohol.:D
lol ..... I agree, but it IS for the kids.


Give them a bit of that "shandy" as a treat and I think you should have budding alcoholics in no time. I keed, I keed. ;)
I think instilling healthy attitudes about alcohol at an early age is a good thing. Parental teaching opportunity!
I have three boys. The eldest doesn't like soft-drink (soda) or beer. The other two (10 and 7) love soft-drink and beer. They will "steal" a couple of large gulps when they get a beer from the fridge for my wife or I. I love dark beers as well as most other beers except bitters. The kids love then all.

They also love to help me bottle the home brew.

I want to reward them (give them the chance to make their own tasty drink) but obviously are concerned about alcohol. I also think this is a responsible way to introduce them to alcohol. That is why I was hoping to make very low alcohol beer (less that 1%, even as low as 0.5%).

Shandies aren't what I had in mind. I was hoping for a decent tasting beer with little or no alcohol.

Thank you for your feed-back so far.
 
That is why I was hoping to make very low alcohol beer (less that 1%, even as low as 0.5%)
ah, what you are looking for is a "near-beer" recipe. back in the 1920's(in america) a lot of breweries switched to brewing these to be able to stay in some kind of business. if i remember correctly, you partigyle a mash into 3 batches: a strong beer, a "normal" beer and a weak "nearbeer". If i can find sauce later when I get to work i'll edit :mug:

edit:
found something-
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/noob-wants-make-near-beer-80471/
 
Brewing day came and I had to make a call. So I have used the Brigalow larger that came with my first kit. I never intended to use it anyway so if it turns out crap I have only wasted my time. I have added 150grams of Coopers Brewing sugar and set it up as per a normal brew (23 litres of water and a packet of yeast).

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
I was just making a beer from a kit ..

In the instructions, this beer actually states, to make a lower alcohol content beer add 1lbs of sugar instead of 2.2lbs of sugar .. according to the instructions this will yield a beer, apx 20% lower in alcohol content .. so that being said ..

so that being said, if i were you, i would add apx 1/2lb sugar if your making it from a kit .. it will still have an alcohol content .. but id guess around the 2 - 2.5% range

if you allowed your children to drink that in moderation .. that wouldn't be so bad .. and could be a good learning tool ..

i personally love a cold beer, a homebrew low or no alchol content .. that accually had flavor would be great, even for us adults .. being able to have a cold beer @ lunch at work .. w/ the taste but not the alchol ..

albeit not as fun, but we can still have the "real" stuff handy too
 
I was told by a German guy that they cut beers with sprite, for kids.

My son's went to Germany as teenagers on a hockey trip (super jealous). While they were there they went to a brewhaus (Very jelaous). My youngest son said the serve a drink called spetze (spelling?). He said it was cut with sprite.

Oh I received as a gift some lovely gigantic glass mugs and some absinthe.
 
if i remember correctly, you partigyle a mash into 3 batches: a strong beer, a "normal" beer and a weak "nearbeer".

This is discussed in the All grain Barley wines. I have 0 clue where the thread is but just as the quote says they make a "strong beer" aka barley wine and then use the second and 3rd running for "kids beer".

Hops this helps!
 
There's a few, but this is the market leader, and it's freaking delicious, nothing like beer though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamalz

This is called "Malzbier" in German. I used to drink it heaps as a kid, it's very sweet and malty. I found a recipe in German but haven't tried it out yet.

http://www.brauer-maelzer.de/rezepte.php

Quick summary of the recipe:

Dark Munich 70%
German Pilsner 25%
Dark Caramel 5%

2 noble hops additions, 5% AA for a total of 20 IBU

Infusion mash as normal, boil for 90 minutes. (calculate approximate loss of 10% wort volume)

Cool and pitch ale yeast at 20°C, after a few hours cool down to 0-1°C. (I think you should get between 0.5 and 1% alcohol). Lager for some time. (again, not very precise). Dextrose may be added at this point.

The recipe doesn't state whether to pasteurise the beer, but I guess you could heat to 60°C to kill the yeast and then chill and keg.
 
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