noob wants to make a near beer

Hi! My name is chuck (see thread in introductions if you like) and I've been
reading here for about a month with great interest and cautious optimism,
with the goal in mind of making a near beer for reasons that may be
predictable and common. I drink the store bought NA's but would like
an amber especially, better than O'Doul's. Any replies with success stories
would be deeply appreciated along with advice aboutmy anything related.
setup will be for the most part disposable and, I'm sure, laughable to most
of you, because if this doesn't work out for any reason, I will likely dispose
of this rather quickly after giving this a GOOD try. Details about my setup
as it develops will be posted in future posts, as well as my background,
if you could call it that. I tried homebrewing aboutthirty years ago,
with horrible results. Over the past few weeks I feel as if I learned
many things I did wrong back then. I will be shaing that over time as
well, and I hope I get replies about anything I seem currently wrong
about, and maybe also if I am right, as reassurance never hurts either.
I am extremely impressed with this supportive commmunity. Thanks in
advance for any help provided.

Brew it.
Ferment it.
When fermentation is thoroughly finished, bring it back up to 172 degrees for 30 minutes to burn off the alcohol.
Proceed to secondary/kegging.

Here's my experiment.

Works best for light IBU or malty beers...as the re heating will drive off a lot of hop aroma.

Very interesting and informative. As a bottler, one of the posts about
flat beer aroused some concern. But my batch may be small enough
to "party pig". I will ask about this little kegging gadget in the kegging
forum. Thanks for linking to your NA thread, and congrats on your
success!

chuck

I wonder if you could re-hop for aroma when you heat it to drive off the alcohol.

Just re-read BM's post and got to thinking about how lowering the pressure would help lower the boiling point. I found this post. Haven't verified, but it's interesting anyway.

For example, if it's ethanol (alcohol) that you're boiling off, the vapors will be at 78 degrees C..... if it's water you're boiling off, the vapors will be at 100 degrees C

Now I chose these two solvents (yup, water is a solvent, and a great one at that!) because in the case where they are mixed, a funny thing happens... water and ethanol in particular form something called an azetropic mixture (also known as a constant-boiling mixture) which in simple terms means that the alcohol cannot be separated from the water completely...at somewhere around 95% pure, the mere act of boiling won't remove any more water. That's why you find "Everclear" at a maximum purity of 190 proof, or 95%, because it's impossible to remove any more of the water from it using distillation!!

So when you boil off a mixture of alcohol and water, expect temperatures somewhat different than the individual components alone...ie alcohol mixed with water will boil at closer to 88-90 degrees C, and depending on the ratio of alcohol and water, the boiling point can be anywhere between 80 and 100 degrees c!!

Click to expand...

- Boiling Points

I think someone should try dry-hopping, after boiling off the alcohol and see how that comes out. hmm

Or make a hop tea to add back in after the removal process.

I have done this several times for my wife. What I have done is made a hop slurry, by presoaking the pellets until they are complety saturated. I mix up a little DMEand water for the liquid.
Then I put the amount I want in the oven, I add the slurry mix. It's not perfect, but it does add some hops flavors back.

once it's cooled down to pitching temps, I add the priming sugar and a small amount of dry yeast. I stirr well then bottle.

It's been pretty tasty every time. I know It's very low in alcohol, because my wife would not be able to drink it.

Thank you all for the great responses. I thinks its time for me so share
my current plan of attack, subject to change if incoming advice makes
sense. Plus several questions over the next few posts, but for now
here is how my insane disposable setup will go. My batch will be small,
about two gallons (a little less believe it or not), my fermentation vessel
will be a two gallon jar that used to contain whey protein (I am guessing
and hoping it is food grade; seems like it). I am cutting a hole in the lid
with a utility knife about 5/16" in diameter for a tube I will insert, making it
airtight with aquarium caulk, letting it cure for a week prior to using it,
and the other end of the tube goes into a jar of water for an airlock.
No secondary fermentation. Seems like ridiculous overkill for a near
beer. I will use a little less than half of a Cooper's kit, and freeze the
other half, and will bottle in plastic soda bottles. I know this post reads
like I am setting myself up to fail, but I really am going to take this
seriously. I just don't have much money at all and I am cutting
corners financially where I can, and will try to substitute work where
money may be lacking. I will boil and sanitize everything possible
mainly to avoid the horrifying results I had in the 70's. All feeback is
encouraged. Thanks for all you have said so far. That reminds me,
future posts will have questions to get a little clarification on some of
what I have read. Thx again!

houndhome1, do you have any "oven" details for me such as how much you put in at a time, how long, and the temp you use? Congrats on your
success!!

ckt

The oven concept concerns me for one reason. As the alcohol boils off it may collect in the oven. with a gas oven there is a chance of having a flash over if the ventilation is not correct.

I will guess that this is the reason for the fan being used as mentioned in
BM's thread. I was wondering about this.

this idea is either crazy or great, not sure which. Since my batch is small,
I may do the alc removal in a couple of slow cookers! Leave them on all
day with a fan running to dissipate fumes, which may not even be necessary
since there is no open flame. They don't need much watchiing over, so I
could do other things. They might be good on brew day for all of us as well.
Put the water on overnight or hours before you are ready. A 5 quart crock
may be fine for a can of extract. Something to think about anyway.