How low can the ABV be and still call it beer?

[GRHunter]

My wife bought me a beer kit as a Christmas present. It was a partial mash Rye Ale kit that the home brew store assembled. I haven't done a partial boil kit in quite a while but I figured that I'd give it a shot since it was laying there doing nothing. Well, I got lazy and didn't take a pre-boil gravity reading and ended up like 15 points under my original gravity target. So I kegged it today and calculated my ABV and came up with 2.5%. So is it beer, near beer, barley beverage, or what? Needless to say, the test tube sample today was pretty bitter.

 

[COLObrewer]

It's definately beer, you can get alot lower than that, look at non-alcoholic beer.

BTW, I once seen it written that: "Brewing beer is a fun and rewarding hobby. When you do good, you get beer. When you do bad, you get beer. It's a lot like recreation league softball".

 

[Wiezer]

I think I saw that too

 

[McGarnigle]

I think it is hard to miss gravity my that much, even with partial mash. Are you sure your gravity readings were correct?

 

[GRHunter]

Gravity readings were good. I think the conversion rate for the partial mash wasn't as good as the kit builders expected. Plus, I know that my volume was high. I agree, it takes some extra special stupidity to miss by that much.

I think it is hard to miss gravity my that much, even with partial mash. Are you sure your gravity readings were correct?

 

[COLObrewer]

. . . . extra special stupidity

"Retarded Rye, it's underwhelmingly mediocre"

 

[GRHunter]

Touche'

It's definately beer, you can get alot lower than that, look at non-alcoholic beer.

BTW, I once seen it written that: "Brewing beer is a fun and rewarding hobby. When you do good, you get beer. When you do bad, you get beer. It's a lot like recreation league softball".

 

[Malticulous]

In this state anything under .5% is not considered an alcoholic beverage and therefor free from all the technicalities of brewing beer. It really just makes naturally carbonated soft drinks legal.

 

[devilishprune]

Did you do a top off? How off was your volume?