Non-Alcoholic homebrew

[addis29]

My dad loves my homebrew but has recently started taking medication where he can't drink alcohol. Has anyone ever done a non alcoholic homebrew.

 

[Coastarine]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/non-alcoholic-beer-33107/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/non-alcoholic-brew-2967/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/non-alcoholic-beer-69357/

 

[robbmann]

I wondered if you have found out any more information for brewing non alcoholic beer. The infor I have found in the past few days suggest a high water to malt ratio in conjunction with a good dose of unfermentables(for body) and a low attenuating yeast. After fermentation heat by stove top or oven to 174 degrees F for 30 minutes to burn off alcohol.
I am a bit stumped on bottle conditioning as to how much yeast and surgar use as I believe cooking the beer will kill the yeast in the beer. If you are kegging you can force CO2 and let it condition.

I will be experimenting on a 1 gallon batch of all grain stout this week end.

 

[david_42]

To bottle condition after heating, you'll have to add yeast (a cheap dry yeast like Munton's is fine) and prime normally. You will end up under 0.5% ABV and close to 0.25% if you do everything right.

 

[monty73741]

It is funny I have a few 12 stepper friends. they dont even drink the NA beer because of the small amount of booze in it. they even dont drink anything naturally carbonated.

 

[Homercidal]

It is funny I have a few 12 stepper friends. they dont even drink the NA beer because of the small amount of booze in it. they even dont drink anything naturally carbonated.

Then they might want to stay away from well-ripened bananas!

 

[Evan!]

I have never had luck bottle conditioning N/A beer. I've taken an entire packet of nottingham, rehydrated, and mixed in at priming time. Carbonation was spotty at best. I wouldn't recommend it until you can force-carb. That, and when you naturally carb, the priming adds a little bit of alcohol back in, so...if it's a zero-tolerance thing, it's not ideal. I have a batch of boston ale on tap for the pregnant wife right now, she loves it. The key was a post-dealcoholization hop tea in a french press . Boiling out the alcohol also tends to boil out much of the hop flavor and aroma.

 

[Dog House Brew]

No ABV.....what's the use? Drink water :rockin:

 

[Evan!]

No ABV.....what's the use? Drink water :rockin:

Oh, yes, how awesome you are for positing such an awesome assertion You even added the "rockin" emoticon. Man, you are HARD CORE, dude. Whooo, yay booze!

First off, my dad's been sober for 20+ years, but he still likes the taste of beer. Why don't you go ask him "what's the use"?

Secondly, my wife has a fetus in her belly the size of an avocado right now, but she loves the taste of beer. Why don't you go ask her "what's the use"?

Here's the thing: not everyone is a drunk-ass college kid, and getting blasted is not always the primary goal. So perhaps, next time you think about posting such nonsense, you should think again.

 

[JoeMama]

Owwww, while Evan put it a bit harsher than me, Im going to have to agree with him.

Homebrewing - Whats the point? Drink store bought beer - its cheaper and quicker and half the challenge!

I would honestly have to say that if I was in this hobby for the alcohol value alone then I wouldnt be here long. Creating a craft beer vs a crap beer is what its about. If I wanted plain ol ABV then I would buy a 12 pack of Natty Light, or some PBR, or even take a shot of formaldehyde.

As much as I hate to say it, I actually dumped a higher ABV concoction that I made because it got me torn beyond recognition with little enjoyment of it inbetween. To me, thats not the point of homebrewing. The buzz provided by the alcohol compliments the buzz of satisfaction from the enjoyment of my craft.
-Me

 

[remilard]

I had a post about this recently with some good info I will summarize here.

1. Ken Schwartz wrote an article you can find on his homepage about homebrewing low alcohol beer in it he references some HBD posts by Maribeth Raines who is a research scientist with access to a professional lab who also used to run a yeast supply company.

2. Everyone will recommend the heating thing but the only person I am aware of who has tested this in a homebrew setting is Raines and it works poorly. See the Schwartz article or search for the Raines posts on HBD which detail her testing methods. I firmly believe if she can't do it in her kitchen, the rest of us can't either.

3. See if you can find saccharomyces ludwigii, which does not produce ethanol. The problem is it also does not produce esters that are part of what beer tastes like.

I'm not trying to be a dick about the heating method but I think it is spectacularly misguided to serve beer treated in such a way to someone who cannot have alcohol for some reason unless you are directly testing the alcohol content of the beer and confirming that you have achieved nearly complete alcohol reduction.

 

[remilard]

To bottle condition after heating, you'll have to add yeast (a cheap dry yeast like Munton's is fine) and prime normally. You will end up under 0.5% ABV and close to 0.25% if you do everything right.

Can you justify this claim?

 

[bull8042]

Oh, yes, how awesome you are for positing such an awesome assertion You even added the "rockin" emoticon. Man, you are HARD CORE, dude. Whooo, yay booze!

First off, my dad's been sober for 20+ years, but he still likes the taste of beer. Why don't you go ask him "what's the use"?

Secondly, my wife has a fetus in her belly the size of an avocado right now, but she loves the taste of beer. Why don't you go ask her "what's the use"?

Here's the thing: not everyone is a drunk-ass college kid, and getting blasted is not always the primary goal. So perhaps, next time you think about posting such nonsense, you should think again.

Evan, you do have a wonderful way with words. But I agree 100%. Not everyone can handle/have alcohol, and the reasons stated here are great examples.
I know that each time my wife was pregnant, even though she loves a good brew, wouldn't get anywhere close to it. Of course, she wouldn't even sniff an open bottle of Tylenol when she had a raging headache.

 

[bull8042]

Can you justify this claim?

If fermentation is complete, there are no fermentables left in the beer. Corn sugar that would be used for priming has the potential of 1.046. At 0.3lb in 5 gal would raise the SG .003. If it ferments completely, that would raise the ABV 0.26% ABV..... And in reality, it probably wouldn't attenuate that far, so the actual percentage would be even lower.

 

[remilard]

If fermentation is complete, there are no fermentables left in the beer. Corn sugar that would be used for priming has the potential of 1.046. At 0.3lb in 5 gal would raise the SG .003. If it ferments completely, that would raise the ABV 0.26% ABV..... And in reality, it probably wouldn't attenuate that far, so the actual percentage would be even lower.

Yeah but what about the alcohol that is already in the beer?

 

[Gumbys_Brew]

i actually did half of my oatmeal stout Non- alcolol for my father to be able to drink some as well. he hates drinking the store bought watered down non-acohol beer so i made him a nice flavorfull beer non alcohol.

 

[Evan!]

remilard, I pounded several pints of mine and didn't feel the slightest buzz. Scientific? Nope. But safe enough that my wife can have a pint and we're both comfortable with it. If there was a true absolute zero tolerance for some reason, then it'd be a concern. But there's not. Off the record, our OB/GYN told us that the real concern is heavy drinking, and so their official line is zero tolerance mainly because of those people who can't stop after one. So a glass of wine or beer here and there is okay...and if that's okay, then so's a trace amount of alcohol possibly leftover from the boiling process.

 

[BrewinJack]

Yeah but what about the alcohol that is already in the beer?

If you boiled it off it wouldnt be there... and also im afraid some of the taste would change and go away as well becasue of the boiling process... but my dad informed me that many beers were pasturized with heat not so long ago becasue the FDA required it... Now a days it is not required because many beers are not pasturized and the ones that are are pastuized with UV or another form.

But if your interested in an non-achohlaic beer then you would i would try that recipe and look around sommore... i never tried a non-achohlic beer, but i have brewed ginger beer(NA) and root beer (NA) and it seemed simple enough.

Cheers

 

[bull8042]

Yeah but what about the alcohol that is already in the beer?

That was pretty much addressed in the first three posts, I believe.
My post was just a response for "justifying" the ABV left behind after bottle conditioning....

 

[remilard]

That was pretty much addressed in the first three posts, I believe.
My post was just a response for "justifying" the ABV left behind after bottle conditioning....

I agree that the ABV after bottle condition is marginally higher than the ABV before, just not that any method has been presented that will get the ABV before anywhere near 0.

 

[BrewinJack]

I agree that the ABV after bottle condition is marginally higher than the ABV before, just not that any method has been presented that will get the ABV before anywhere near 0.

Fallowing the quote below this and increaseign the boil off time from 30- 45 or 50mins would get your ABV easily below .5% and that last .5% would be in solution with the water molacue and hard to break, and i more likely to be mostly low wines or fusels (in extreamly dilute form and undangerous) because they merge completely with water unlike ethonol which dose not completely dissolve, just a simpler bond then the lower wines

I wondered if you have found out any more information for brewing non alcoholic beer. The infor I have found in the past few days suggest a high water to malt ratio in conjunction with a good dose of unfermentables(for body) and a low attenuating yeast. After fermentation heat by stove top or oven to 174 degrees F for 30 minutes to burn off alcohol.
I am a bit stumped on bottle conditioning as to how much yeast and surgar use as I believe cooking the beer will kill the yeast in the beer. If you are kegging you can force CO2 and let it condition.

I will be experimenting on a 1 gallon batch of all grain stout this week end.

after that i would think that below .26% + <.5% would be close to zero... its really damn close to zero... to get a taceable ABV you would need to drink sevral beers, and becasue of the high ammount of unfermentable sugars you would have alot of calories in your beer and drinking more then 3 or 4 would make you feel pretty sloshy... if your worried about that added 1/4 of a percent then you force carb with dry ice or bottled CO2, just like you do with brewed soda... that along with purge boiling would make your ABV addition because of bottling below .1%... and you wont even be able to measure that without a mass spect or gas crom teseting... and you certinly wont beable to taste it... and it would take many more bottles to give you an overal ABV of 1%... and youd piss it out before you even got that high, not tomention youd have to drink them all with in roughly an hour... for that even to registure... If your worried about this then your probably worried about the effects of breathing in orgainic Aclohal Based cleaners, Hand sanitizer, mouth wash, and the ammount of Methonol/ethyl acetate generated in diet soda from the beak down of nutisweet... that seems a bit extream to me... and your basically makeing beer flavored soda... if your really bothered by it then im sorry but you will have to work on it more then that... i know that store bought NA's claim less then .5% and if your father in law can drink those then he should have no problem with this solution

Cheers

 

[remilard]

Fallowing the quote below this and increaseign the boil off time from 30- 45 or 50mins would get your ABV easily below .5%

Why do you believe this is true?

HOMEBREW Digest #1609 Tue 20 December 1994

 

[BrewinJack]

Why do you believe this is true?

HOMEBREW Digest #1609 Tue 20 December 1994

i have done sevral of my own distilations purely for educational purposes only of course... and after 50 minutes of distilation have found the achohal level lower then my hydrometer could regesture... the last line on my hydrometer is 1/2%... and i have done this sevral times... so i guess personal experience... but also inferior equipment... in case your wondering i let the remaining wort cool down to 70F before i tested it... Granted it was only about a gallon of brew which was heated, not 5 gallons

Cheers

 

[Coastarine]

i have done sevral of my own distilations purely for educational purposes only of course... and after 50 minutes of distilation have found the achohal level lower then my hydrometer could regesture... the last line on my hydrometer is 1/2%... and i have done this sevral times... so i guess personal experience... but also inferior equipment... in case your wondering i let the remaining wort cool down to 70F before i tested it... Granted it was only about a gallon of brew which was heated, not 5 gallons

Cheers

I could be misunderstanding you here, but you do know that the % alcohol scale on the hydrometer is a measure of the potential alcohol (if all the sugar present was fermented). Any finished beer will have very little potential to make more alcohol. I could be wrong about what you're saying, maybe it just went over my head.

 

[BrewinJack]

I could be misunderstanding you here, but you do know that the % alcohol scale on the hydrometer is a measure of the potential alcohol (if all the sugar present was fermented). Any finished beer will have very little potential to make more alcohol. I could be wrong about what you're saying, maybe it just went over my head.

I got another one which shows achohal percent persent, it says hydrometer on the box but it maybe called somthing else... i used that

Cheers

 

[Papinquack]

My brother in-law has liver enzyme issues and he drinks Odouls. It tastes terrible. I would love to lay a great tasting alcohol free home brew on him. Once yen's guys figure it all out and are able to produce a successful naturally carbonated batch I'd appreciate if you'd share the recipe with me. I not an all grainer so I'd only be able to follow recipes for extract kit conversions. Thanks...

 

[miatawnt2b]

How about only doing an initial 30 min boil adding your bittering hops, then chill and ferment. After fermentation, rack to the boil kettle and boil again for 30 min adding your flavor and aroma hops before chilling a second time and straight to keg.

Thoughts?

-J

 

[remilard]

How about only doing an initial 30 min boil adding your bittering hops, then chill and ferment. After fermentation, rack to the boil kettle and boil again for 30 min adding your flavor and aroma hops before chilling a second time and straight to keg.

Thoughts?

-J

I know this will not result in very low alcohol beer (probably about a 40% reduction in alcohol) and I think it will result in a bad tasting beer (although adding the extra hops is probably a good idea).

 

[crammer]

This is a great topic!

Posting to subscribe to this thread.

 

[JoshBrack]

To make a Non-alcoholic beer, would it be better to use an extract or go with partial mash?