DoubleFisted
Well-Known Member
Has anyone brewed a low carb beer? I was challenged by a fellow mate to make one for him and I really have no idea where to start. Any help is greatly appreciated.
All calories in beer are from carbohydrates,
Alcohol has calories too, specifically 7 kcal/g (compared to 4 kcal/g for carbohydrates).
I agree with everything else that you said, though.
Mash low for longer with a low OG beer and that should get you on your way. Some people like to add amylase or beano, but I'm not to fond of that myself.
DoubleFisted said:So maybe my water to grain ratio should be higher too which will make it a lighter beer? This is all just an experiment for a guy that is trying to cut carbs.
Thanks for the great advice this is why I love HBT. And trust me I do call him a weiner but at least he is still drinking beer with this new diet fad he is trying I guess. We will see how this goes. I assume there is no real way to test how many carbs are in the end result?
Actually, there is. Depends on how much effort you're willing to put in. I remember doing something similar in High school Biology, so it's not that advanced.
Here's the wiki for Benedict's Reagent:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict's_reagent
Basically, this tests for the monosaccharides glucose and fructose as well as lactose and maltose. I doubt that you will have glucose and fructose present after fermentation, but you may have maltotriose (pretty much unfermentable by ale yeast).
This article may also interest you. http://www.brewinfo.org/articles/clinitest2.html
It seems rather hard to quantify, but you can compare it to some standard solutions to get a general idea.
If you don't want to get that involved, then you can always use one of the many online calculators to determine the calories per pint. Or, you can just estimate based on the FG. 1.020+ is high, 1.000 is about the lowest you can get (and probably not without some additional amylase/beano).
Edit: Or you could do what MalFet said.
Yeah one time I was looking at a stuck fermentation thread on HBT and it was something like a 1.120 beer that stopped at 1.050. I went to calc the calories per beer and it was like 450 for a 12oz!!!!!!!!!
That means making a low OG beer and mashing low, as people have mentioned, but also you can use amylase enzymes in the fermentor to convert more complex sugars into something the yeast can eat.
Actually I don't think that is correct. As I understand it Amylase breaks glycosidic bonds between the glucose molecules in STARCH.
Hmmm, I'd like to hear more about this.
I've definitely heard that even though alpha is the "chopper" and beta is the "biter," they eventually come to branches in the starch that they can't break anymore. There's some other enzymes that breaks the branches.
I thought I remembered this from Chemistry in College. One method of repairing a poor mash is by using Amylase Enzyme in a fermenter to convert any starches that have been converted into fermentable sugars. Amylase does nothing to the sugars themselves, it only converts stacrch into sugars.
Here you go.....
Nearly all beer includes barley malt as the majority of the starch. This is because of its fibrous husk, which is not only important in the sparging stage of brewing (in which water is washed over the mashed barley grains to form the wort), but also as a rich source of amylase, a digestive enzyme which facilitates conversion of starch into sugars.
I thought I remembered this from Chemistry in College. One method of repairing a poor mash is by using Amylase Enzyme in a fermenter to convert any starches that have been converted into fermentable sugars. Amylase does nothing to the sugars themselves, it only converts stacrch into sugars.
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