I'm looking for insight into brewing low-alcohol beer. I've been brewing on and off for a couple of decades, so I know my way around both syrup and all-grain brewing, but I'm no expert by any means. I started brewing because in the early 90's, in central Iowa, you could only buy crappy beer. I like the taste of beer, real beer, German purity law big-taste beers. Not anything that would ever qualify as "lite".
And then my quandary. I've got a rare, genetic liver disease. Had it for years, but it's moved from "not good" to "bad" lately. My liver functions, it's not what could be called healthy, but putting a half-dozen 8% maibocks through it in one night would be a very bad idea.
So I'm trying to figure out how to get big-beer taste, without 5%+ alcohol contents. I've tried some tinkering with basic recipes, to little success. Boiling ethanol out of beer seriously damages it's taste as well. Most of the commercial NA beers seem to be crafted by adding back sugars (syrups) and vacuum boiling at a much lower temperature than 174F.
Any ideas on how to get good tasting big-beers, with low alcohol contents?
And then my quandary. I've got a rare, genetic liver disease. Had it for years, but it's moved from "not good" to "bad" lately. My liver functions, it's not what could be called healthy, but putting a half-dozen 8% maibocks through it in one night would be a very bad idea.
So I'm trying to figure out how to get big-beer taste, without 5%+ alcohol contents. I've tried some tinkering with basic recipes, to little success. Boiling ethanol out of beer seriously damages it's taste as well. Most of the commercial NA beers seem to be crafted by adding back sugars (syrups) and vacuum boiling at a much lower temperature than 174F.
Any ideas on how to get good tasting big-beers, with low alcohol contents?