Help a newbie make 2abv please

[lacto]

Hello all,

Please forgive my ignorance in all things brewing, but I am trying to learn how to make a 2abv (or thereabouts) bitter herb drink. I would like it to be only slightly sweet with a little bit of fizz.

I know this is probably very easily obtained but I do not wish spend lots of time guessing when you dear people know exactly what do. So would someone be willing to advise me?

My question is for 4 liters how much all purpose wine yeast (this packet is 5g for 22liters) would I need to use. How much sugar (or preferably honey) would be needed. How long would it take to achieve 2abv that would have a slight sweetness to offset the bitterness a bit, yet also have a little fizziness still in it. Oh yes, and I do not want to add anything to alter the flavour or to clarify the liquid, or any other chemical additives.

I forgot to mention that I understand the terms OG and FG so if necessary you can tell me what numbers might be relevant.

Thank you for reading this.

 

[HollowJack88]

Hello all,

Please forgive my ignorance in all things brewing, but I am trying to learn how to make a 2abv (or thereabouts) bitter herb drink. I would like it to be only slightly sweet with a little bit of fizz.

I know this is probably very easily obtained but I do not wish spend lots of time guessing when you dear people know exactly what do. So would someone be willing to advise me?

My question is for 4 liters how much all purpose wine yeast (this packet is 5g for 22liters) would I need to use. How much sugar (or preferably honey) would be needed. How long would it take to achieve 2abv that would have a slight sweetness to offset the bitterness a bit, yet also have a little fizziness still in it. Oh yes, and I do not want to add anything to alter the flavour or to clarify the liquid, or any other chemical additives.

I forgot to mention that I understand the terms OG and FG so if necessary you can tell me what numbers might be relevant.

Thank you for reading this.

8oz (227grams) of Sugar or Honey in 4L of water should be about 2-3 Abv, A 1/2 Packet of yeast should be enough for a small batch however if you should have any doubts adding the full packet of yeast will not do any harm. most wine yeast would eat all the sugar in a batch of this size so for a slight sweetness it might be easiest to back sweeten the batch, adding a desirable amount of sugar or honey just before consumption as chemically stopping fermentation early doesn't sound like it would appeal to your recipe. If you are able to bottle it before reaching a FG of 1.000,
Theoretically once the desired carbonation is reached, the batch could be pasteurized at 158F/70C for 10-20 minutes then cooled to 50F/10C to kill the yeast & leave some sweetness behind as well, However I'm only aware of the process and not familiar enough to advise it be done without further input of someone more knowledgeable. Hopefully this helps a little at least and good luck with your herbal drink.

 

[lacto]

Thank you hollowjack88, this is valuable info for me - especially the sugar imput. I am about to try out a chicory 'tonic' brew, so I will try it with the wine yeast, then I will want to adapt another brew using wild petal (chicory) yeast water. I will post here the results (in about seven to ten days time).

 

[mashdar]

A warning re low ABV: consider getting a pH meter and verifying you are getting below pH 4.6 for food safety reasons.

2% ABV would probably get there (the yeast acidifies during fermentation), and if you are doing a lacto ferment it's almost certainly fine, but if just using beer (edit: or wine, champagne, cider, etc) yeast, your herbs might buffer it too high.

Re sweetness, a good place to read up are cider threads - left to its own devices, ciders get pretty dry. Cider folks pastuerize, chemically stop fermentation, and/or use unfermentable sweeteners. In beer, somtimes people use massive amounts of lactose, but I'm not sure anyone does that with cider.