Hopless beer?

Hi everyone. I have been reading this forum for quite some time, and have recently made my first batch of beer - used a Cooper's kit for their Irish Stout.

I have come to a sad sad revelation. I don't like the taste of beer.... i know, sad, huh? I love making it, hate drinking it. I know it is something i will come to love, but unlike most folks, when I first started drinking it was with liquors and mixed drinks. I really like flavored malt beverages - like wine coolers, bacardi raz, things like that.

I have scoured this forum through and through looking for how to make them, and have come to 2 realizations: 1) I will get made fun of for making this post and 2) flavored malt beverages (I hate the term malt liquor - bad army memories associated with that word) are essentially un hopped fruit beers.

I am hoping that my #2 is right, and that my #1 is wrong. I really want some advice on this.

I have a recipe from the brewmaster beer bible for a raspberry wheat that calls for 3.3 pound can of weizen LME, and 3.3 pound can of weizen unhopped LME. When that comes out of the primary, it's poured over 6 pounds crushed raspberries in the secondary.

Would using 2 cans of the unhopped produce something similar to the bacardi raz kind of thing? I know it will be really sweet, but that is what I am going for. I am not a fan of bitter.


Thanks in advance, and please.... don't leave bruises

I'm hoping your #1 is wrong as well.

I really can't answer your question about the Bacardi drink as I've never had one. Maybe someone else will help out on that.
I did want to ask though if you had ever thought about making mead. That might be something you would enjoy making AND drinking..

Would using 2 cans of the unhopped produce something similar to the bacardi raz kind of thing?

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No, it won't be anything like that at all.

That would be nothing like bacardi raz, it would be like an unbalanced raspberry wheat beer. Those things are "malt flavored", they have very little to do with beer at all, they're almost pure table sugar. I know there are some hard lemonade recipes on the site, if you search you should be able to find them, but it really isn't beer or even beer like.

EDIT: Here's one https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/good-hard-lemonade-27966/

I dont think it would come out as sweet as you might want. You may have to add some splenda to suit your taste. If you dont use any hops you wont need to do full 60 min boil either. 20 min or so should be fine.

If you are looking to make a sweet, fruity BEER, I recommend trying to replicate the version of Lindeman's lambics you can buy in the US. Although they arent a true lambic, they are beer and they are sweet.

I'm not really sure of a recipe. I can do a little more research on that later tonight. You basically want to make a very light ale (probaly all pilsner and wheat malt). Lightly hop with german hops to bring some balance. Then fruit the ever living crap out of it. After that, backsweeten with splenda.

The "malt based beverages" are made with malt so they can get away with selling it in places where they couldn't sell a "hard alcohol" based beverage. The "malt" is filtered within an inch of it's life inorder to strip out all flavor and "maltiness" in order to be able to add flavor. It's virtually impossible for a homebrewer to do it.

Do some searches on gruits and herbal beers. If your problem is with bitter, you can also make many styles that have very low bittering levels; wheats, Milds, etc.

What if you removed the 60min boil portion of the recipe.

IOW, malt source + hops done at 10mins for aroma, and no bittering hops. Could be an interesting experiment. Your balance would be off, so maybe extra light extract for less flavor addition. Plus, you could flavor it with fruit or herb flavorings that seem to be available through HB stores.

Inexperience here, but this could be a beer style that has been mentioned already.

It seems the points being made are that you are in control to experiment.

Have fun with it.

Maybe you should try making cider and mead instead of beer?

I'm not meaning to make fun of you either, but just wanted to ask if it is beer you don't like, or if it is the Irish Stout you don't like? Stout is an acquired taste, even to regular beer drinkers. If you messa round with some of the fruit beers, I'm sure you'll find something you do like! Good luck!

Malt based beverages do not taste anything like beer. Not only are they unhopped but the industrial process used to make them basically strips all of the malt flavor away as well. Then they sweeten the resulting alcoholic beverage and flavor it.

There is not a good way to replicate this result with standard homebrewing techniques. With a kegging system it might be possible to make something similar because you could stabilize and back sweeten and flavor a cider or sugar based beverage then carbonate in the keg.

It is fine that you do not like beer. Not everyone does. Consider instead of trying to make an industrial product like malt beverages, instead make fruit wines, ciders or meads. Wines, ciders and meads have a wide range of flavors. They can be sweet or dry, sparkling or still. You may find this path more rewarding.

Craig

I personally like a kolsch I would like to try a gruitale

Hmmm, lots of good words and lots of good advice. I do plan on doing wine, mead and cider in the future as well. I've got a lot to think about now, and some experimenting to do.

I think mead may be the way for you to go.

I highly suggest you look into some carbonated apfelwein. It sounds like that would really be up your ally.

monty73741 said:

I personally like a kolsch I would like to try a gruitale

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I thought so too, until I tried one!