Low(er) ABV Homebrew Recipes

[schematix]

It seems like the main infatuation afflicting most homebrewers from day 1 is making cheap alcohol, something I am guilty of myself. And that leads to big, heavy, boozy beers... e.g. RIS, DIPA, IIPA, Tripel. All good choices, by the way, but it is to one extreme.

After years of making 6%+ brews almost exclusively, I am opening my eyes to the potential of making great brews at the lower end of the spectrum, more in the 4% range. But I am not looking to sacrifice the flavor or balance of the bigger beers.

So my question to those in this community: Can anyone share any tried and true recipes for lower ABV beers? Are there any special techniques that apply better here?

I haven't seen many articles or threads on the subject so I am curious to see if this is something people in the homebrewing community are exploring, or if it is left to the mass market 'lite' beer brewers to fulfill.

 

[Sammy86]

Here is a forum favorite @Biermunchers centennial blonde a nice 4% that everyone who brews it raves about it! Hope you this helps you in your quest for low alcohol beers!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42841

 

[AnthonyUK]

I tried a prototype beer from Brewdog called All Day Long that I thought was amazing at 3%.
This is my first iteration at attempting to clone it or at least get something similar.

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/758495/all-day-longer

This first batch was great and for the 2nd batch which I've just transferred to keg I upped the flameout hops to 20g each.

 

[BrewDoc1518]

That centennial blonde is a very solid brew!

 

[Hanglow]

My advice would be, to drink them quickly - most bitters, golden ales milds etc are all drunk within 6 weeks of being racked to cask. They can drop off quite quick, which is why i almost never buy these beers bottled. Roastier beers like porters will last a bit longer though, even ones with fairly tame abvs

For hop forward beers -british golden ales
For a bit more balanced, bitters
Malty - modern milds
You can make some nice simple Belgian pales as well

Pick some nice yeast and don't overpitch

Also don't over complicate the malt or hop bill, with less to work with you want simpler to give you more assertive flavours rather than more complex lesser ones, imo at least

 

[schematix]

Has anyone ever tried brewing a higher gravity beer then diluting it to lower ABV (and increase quantity)? I can't make less than 1.050 beer on my system to the size of the mash tun.

 

[m00ps]

Many people use top off water to get their batch size to 5 gallons. There's no reason why you couldnt do something similar to split your 5gal of wort into like 2 carboys of 3-4 gallons each

 

[Yooper]

I'd make a mild! Grain to glass in 10 days, and usually 2.9-3.5% ABV. Very drinkable, and a great beer.

Here's a thread on a mild swap we did about 7 years ago: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=77758

 

[dcbw]

Has anyone ever tried brewing a higher gravity beer then diluting it to lower ABV (and increase quantity)? I can't make less than 1.050 beer on my system to the size of the mash tun.

I'll assume you mean dilute before fermentation, not after?

Just did that to make a 3.75% session IPA actually, because I was too lazy to use my big setup. So instead I did it on my 4gal EBIAB, started [email protected], boiled to [email protected] and topped up with boiled water to the desired gravity of [email protected]. Just do the Gravity Units math and you'll be fine.

 

[chickypad]

Here's another great mild recipe. Also here is a recipe from Drake's and Tasty McDole. If you google session beers a bunch of articles come up including Beersmith podcast with the Mad Fermentationist, a BYO article, and a bunch of others.

What do you mean that you can't get less than 1.050 on your system? Are you saying your tun is so huge you need a certain amount of grain to fill the bed or something? How about doing some low gravity BIAB batches in your kettle?

 

[loeks]

Reading this may just inspire me to brew a mild in the near future. I've been meaning to do that for a while now.

 

[fantomlord]

I'd make a mild! Grain to glass in 10 days, and usually 2.9-3.5% ABV. Very drinkable, and a great beer.

Here's a thread on a mild swap we did about 7 years ago: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=77758

+1 on the mild--very enjoyable beers. I just had my last one grain to glass in 5 days, too

The other thing you could do is enjoy the best of both worlds...do a partigyle. This way, you can get your big beer (e.g. RIS), and a quick turnaround easy drinking session brew (e.g. mild). This is actually what I did for the 5 day mild.

 

[Derek1985]

I'd make a mild! Grain to glass in 10 days, and usually 2.9-3.5% ABV. Very drinkable, and a great beer.

Amen. Milds have a great malty, complex flavor and you can drink 'em all day long!

 

[JonM]

Agreed. I have Orfys mild in my keg fridge right now and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

It's not hard to make a low ABV beer, but making one that is really flavorful takes a little finesse. Orfys mild nails it. And FWIW, i used 002 in my batch, which has a much lower attenuation than the Nottingham called for in the recipe. Mine is closer to 2% ABV, and man is it tasty.

 

[botigol]

This thread has a few ideas:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=378450

 

[schematix]

What do you mean that you can't get less than 1.050 on your system? Are you saying your tun is so huge you need a certain amount of grain to fill the bed or something? How about doing some low gravity BIAB batches in your kettle?

I probably should have been more precise about what I meant about not being able to get under 1.050. I'm using a 15G boilermaker as my mash tun. 18lbs of grain at 1.5 qt/lb doesn't even reach the thermometer (18lbs of grain will give me 11.5G in the fermenter at 1.050). That is not insurmountable, but i'd have to move the thermometer or have another way to read the actual mash temp.

 

[chickypad]

If you can't find another thermometer you could just do a full volume mash no sparge. That would bump your mash volume up.

 

[afro_lou]

Here's a recipe from an awesome local brewery (Henhouse)

Mash:
90% Maris otter pale malt
5% flaked barley
5% caramel 15L
Mash temp 157F

Boil: 60 minutes
Fuggle@30 minutes to 15 IBU
Wlp002 yeast
Ferment @ 66F
Dry hop:
0.3 oz/gallon mosaic
0.7 oz/gallon cascade
0.5 oz/gallon fuggle
OG: 1.038
FG: 1.009

Super hoppy amazing "session IPA." Tons and tons of dry hops really do the trick. Only 3.85% abv too.

For your mash, I second what @chickypad suggested.