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Troll thread? I purchased a lifetime Membership to Troll... Right...
[troll thread moved to DRMM]
I've been seeing this method as a suggestion. It may be a good one, idk... But I'm hoping to be able to accomplish this through natural brewing, not post brew additions. I don't know about the Michelob Ultra attempt though. May have to resort to this.
You don't think that the "big" light lagers are brewed to a concentrate and then have water added??
I'm no expert but I've often thought it would be harder to make those types of beers. The lighter a beer is the more you can't hide any issues you have in your process. I've never tried a clone recipe but my guess is that it can't be easy.
But the best reason to brew one of these beers is because then your friends won't get absolutely wrecked when they come over for a party. I have Coors Light fans who drink my beer and I wish they wouldn't. They can't can't handle the ABV. Slowly I'm adding more low ABV beers to my rotation.
I love to tell the story of the party I got invited to a couple of years back. I didn't have anything really good to bring but, as I was working on a book chapter on beer color, I took a not too outstanding VMO, put some into each of two growlers, added a dollop of Sinamar to one and asked people to compare and contrast these two 'similar' lagers. There were BJCP Master beer judges, pro's from Victory and Gordon Biersch and many others of the local beer cognoscenti present. I could not believe the BS I got. Vanilla notes in this one, ribes in that one... One little gal was very apologetic, said that she really didn't know much about beer and was only there because of her boyfriend but that she really couldn't taste any difference at all. Remember the story about the emperor?
Several of those people have not spoken to me in over a year and I have not been invited back but it was well worth it - a treasured experience for sure! And it certainly validated the statement that I had heard Charlie Bamforth (the editor of the book) make in a lecture: "We taste with our eyes."
You know, I really don't know. Are they? I'd like to know for sure. Can you shoot me a link or something on that topic? I looked at AB's web-sight on there method and it says nothing about adding water.
I doubt that A/B would publish as part of their process. However from all the "How to brew commercially" sources I've read brewing at a higher gravity than target and then diluting with sterile, dearated water is useful in large scale "production plant" style brewing both for economics and consistency. Typically for American Lagers and typically combined with other post fermentations adjustment to color, aroma and flavor.
From Brewing Science and Practice: