Non Alcoholic Beer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rob2010SS

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jun 16, 2017
Messages
3,401
Reaction score
1,363
Location
Spring Grove
Anyone making any GOOD non-alcoholic beer? I'm trying to see if it's possible to make some for the wife. All of the examples we can buy at the store are kinda gross (clausthaler, o'douls, etc.). Brew Dog's Nanny State isn't terrible but still not great.

Anyone have any good recipes for NA beers?

I've never done NA beers. What's the process for even making them?
 
The best way to make an NA beer is through alcohol removal using specialized filters (so no heat used). Anything else won't even come close.
 
I've never done an NA beer but would be interested. My father has always been supportive of everything I do but has never, and will never drink a sip of alcohol so I think it would be cool if I can produce an NA beer to share with him and watch a nice day go by.

@TwistedGray has been tinkering with some very low ABV and NA beers that sound interesting. Maybe he will see this and chime in. Cheers!
 
@Vale71 hit the nail on the head in post #3.

If you just want to putz around, there are threads linked in here that are a good starting point; however, don't expect to come out on the other side with a better-than-commercial NA beer. In other words, set your expectations low! I would not waste your time with heat extraction. You might as well just throw a few dollars on the ground and set it ablaze...save yourself the headaches.

With that said, if you are okay with 0.5% and above then it's a different game altogether. You need to choose a style that can withstand what happens when you "thin" out a beer (adjusting grain to water ratio). Sours are very easy to work with because most of them are fruited, and the complexity of the fruit and the souring agent is enough to make a 0.5% beer something you'd go back for a second and a third. While they lack the heft of a 5-8% sour, they can pack a nice flavor punch.

I managed a wheat beer once, and I may try to replicate that in the near future. Again, I just needed to adjust the grain to water ratio and the hop ratios. I found that dialing the hops in is the biggest challenge though (half is a good starting point, but it's hit and miss depending on the hop and its current AA%). I've also made hop water that could be used to clean some rusted tools, or whatever other application you could dream up for super bitter hop water...poisoning people maybe? In other words, my suggestion is to brew one large batch, and then split it out with three different hops levels until your system is dialed in. From a personal choice perspective - I only use a small amount of bittering hops and adjust in dry hopping.

And last but not least, brown ales are good down to about 3%. Anything lower and it becomes a meh beer...I mean, they're not bad, but they are far too thin. Again, just adjust your grain/water ratios until your gravity is at a point that it'll finish out at 3% or so.

I gave up on pale ales (too hop driven), and I don't drink IPAs (hop oils do not agree with my sickly gi system).


I'm happy to answer any questions that I can, but my method is about as simple as you can get. I want the brewing process to be the same whether it's a 0.5%, 3%, or 7-8%, and that's what I've been able to accomplish by adjusting ratios. It's not an end-all-be-all, and there are certainly better methods (?), but they are all going to be more complex than the basic adjustments I make.

K.I.S.S.
 
The best way to make an NA beer is through alcohol removal using specialized filters (so no heat used). Anything else won't even come close.


+1

when i distill, when i dump it down the drain, it smells so bad! the only NA beer worth a damn, is kombucha.....
 
+1

when i distill, when i dump it down the drain, it smells so bad! the only NA beer worth a damn, is kombucha.....

I don't know anything about kombucha. Is kombucha 0.5% or less?

EDIT: Don't answer that. That was a rhetorical question. I'll do some research to figure out what Kombucha is and how low alcohol it is.
 
Last edited:
Hello all, wanted to share some experience I had working with someone that now makes 'beer whiskey' by distilling alcohol from beer using a vacuum process. The lower the atmospheric pressure the lower the evaporation temperature of alcohol from the solution. So, he can distill the alcohol at room temperature under a vacuum. We participated in an experiment that our NYC home-brew club, 'Brewminaries' was doing. I brewed the beer and he made the whiskey. Beer was saison that was on the lower in alcohol side (because I was inexperienced) at 4% abv. He usually adds a de-foamer but didn't do this at my request because I wanted to try the no alcohol beer. I didn't bottle condition it but used a soda stream. And...it was not drinkable. BUT, am now thinking (as I'm started to experiment with cold mashing), that if you brewed a beer specifically tailored to have this done, then it could be a lot better. AND if you bottle conditioned instead for carbonation. The distilling guy said that the alcohol has a lot of flavor compounds with it as the excellent and unique taste of the 'beer whiskey' proved, so that's a challenge to make up in taste. This guy, Dave's, operation is here: ARCANE DISTILLING – Arcane is a highly specialized distillery located in Brooklyn, New York. Vacuum distilled Lone Wolf beer whiskey, Arcane Fernet, and The Arcane whiskey I attached a photo of the main distiller he made using a 15 foot tall weird glass vessel. Anyway, I'm about to start a new thread about cold mash questions and such, about to make my second batch, first was 2% and a lot of people really like it. I'm on the fence, but have been drinking it. Good when you want to pound a beer and not have it slow you down AT ALL.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2020-10-14 at 12.37.49 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2020-10-14 at 12.37.49 AM.png
    4 MB · Views: 22
The idea of going thru all the trouble to brew a beer that won't even give you a buzz makes me want to weep like a small child.


Next time you pour a glass of wonderfully satisfiying nectar, consider pouring it for the hommies! then of course filling it up again!

(probably best done with the first pour of a newly hooked up keg) :mug:
 
But if you could drink the beer all gosh darn day long and still live a normal and productive life, than doesn't that have some allure?
 
To Øl in Denmark claims to be using a yeast strain that produce both CO2 and esters but no alcohol for their AF brews, I only tried one and it was the best AF beer I have ever tried, so it's worth a try investigating into that
 
I cannot drink, and there are others like me who cannot but love beer. I brew many varieties and yes I drink my brew all day. I would hate life without this. Any info on the Denmark yeast would have, I think, great value.
 
I cannot drink, and there are others like me who cannot but love beer. I brew many varieties and yes I drink my brew all day. I would hate life without this. Any info on the Denmark yeast would have, I think, great value.
Apparently it's made by some company named CHR Hansen, in Denmark I guess, you could try contacting them but as it's not a yeast lab, it's probably not for sale
 
To Øl in Denmark claims to be using a yeast strain that produce both CO2 and esters but no alcohol for their AF brews, I only tried one and it was the best AF beer I have ever tried, so it's worth a try investigating into that
The only way yeast can do that is if they operate strictly aerobically and that's impossible when making beer. They're probably using Torulaspora Delbrueckii or some other exotic strain that can only process glucose and fructose which can produce, given a wort of sufficiently low OG, beer that is below 0.5% ABV which is generally considered NA in most countries. Now don't expect a beer fermented with that to taste anything like a regular beer. Besides the no-alcohol thing it will also have all of the complex sugars, even maltose and maltotriose, that would have been fully fermented out in a regular beer. This also makes the final product extremely unstable microbiologically which means that filtration and pasteurization are practically mandatory.
 
The only way yeast can do that is if they operate strictly aerobically and that's impossible when making beer. They're probably using Torulaspora Delbrueckii or some other exotic strain that can only process glucose and fructose which can produce, given a wort of sufficiently low OG, beer that is below 0.5% ABV which is generally considered NA in most countries. Now don't expect a beer fermented with that to taste anything like a regular beer. Besides the no-alcohol thing it will also have all of the complex sugars, even maltose and maltotriose, that would have been fully fermented out in a regular beer. This also makes the final product extremely unstable microbiologically which means that filtration and pasteurization are practically mandatory.
This beer is 0.3 which make it AF in the EU but I can ensure you that it tasted just like any session IPA out there made with any other yeast

The only thing I noticed was a lack of mouthfeel and body but in my opinion it was due to the grist, it contains barley and wheat, no oats, which could explain the lack of body, it wasn't too sweet at all, just like any session or micro IPA out there

Maybe it's a modified yeast but I'm not sure of the legal status in the EU if genetically modified yeasts
 
This beer is 0.3 which make it AF in the EU but I can ensure you that it tasted just like any session IPA out there made with any other yeast

Then it sounds more like the result of post-fermentation alcohol removal but you never know, maybe they've really perfected their technique.

The only thing I noticed was a lack of mouthfeel and body but in my opinion it was due to the grist, it contains barley and wheat, no oats, which could explain the lack of body, it wasn't too sweet at all, just like any session or micro IPA out there
The lack of mouthfeel would be from the missing alcohol. It all sounds more and more like the result of alcohol removal, which would also actually make a beer less sweet, as opposed to partial fermentation where one of biggest challenges is excessive sweetness from all the sugars.

Maybe it's a modified yeast but I'm not sure of the legal status in the EU if genetically modified yeasts
That would be highly illegal anywhere in the EU.

Seriously, some of the claims put forth by microbreweries are beyond questionable and border on the ridiculous...
 
Then it sounds more like the result of post-fermentation alcohol removal but you never know, maybe they've really perfected their technique.


The lack of mouthfeel would be from the missing alcohol. It all sounds more and more like the result of alcohol removal, which would also actually make a beer less sweet, as opposed to partial fermentation where one of biggest challenges is excessive sweetness from all the sugars.


That would be highly illegal anywhere in the EU.

Seriously, some of the claims put forth by microbreweries are beyond questionable and border on the ridiculous...
They claim there's no chemistry or heat involved, but as you said, commercial claims need to be observed with caution

I just checked, and the exact claim is that they developed that strain together with that lab and they assure that there is no alcohol extraction involved, that it's a really low alcohol beer by it self, maybe it's some kind of specific mash technique plus that yeast, avoiding the presence of more complex sugars, if there were that sugars present, I think it would be a sweeter beer and with a fuller body, so I think there are no long chain sugars
 
There are a number or really tasty NAs these days and mouthfeel is not an issue. Athletic Brewing Company really leads the charge but there are several now. 2021 is going to be a great year for NA with a number of traditional breweries planning on producing an NA through the de-alcoholizaton process. Barrel Brothers in Sonoma County are driving this category as they can brew any of their traditionally-brewed beers within a range of ABV (6% to 8%) and then de-alc those beers to 0.5%. Their flagship NA, State-Sponsored Juicing NA NEIPA, sold out on the first run, so they have already produced another batch as well as an NA versions of their blonde, Blonde Voyage and also their porter, Dark Sarcasm. Also look for NA beers from breweries such as Wellbeing, Partake, Gruvi, Untitled Art, not to mention Sam Adams, Dogfish Head and Boulevard.

For homebrewers, I'm actually brewing an NA in the next week or so using regular techniques and arrested fermentation. More to follow on this...
 
Back
Top