Non-Alcoholic homebrew

[cockybitz]

At what temperature does finished beer boil? From what I recall, it will remain at the boiling temperature of ethanol (176 F?) until all of the ethanol boils off. Any temperature over 176 and the etOH absorbs the heat of the solution until etOH heat of vaporization is met and the etOH boils away, leaving behind the rest.

My concern is, doesn't the alpha acid neutralize the alcohol? So much less bittering hops would be needed. So, use very little bittering hops, and after fermentation is complete boil in brew kettle until temperature surpasses 176. Then add flavor and aroma hops, cool, and bottle.

 

[ArtVandelay]

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

That doesn't tell you anything. A lot of hydrometers have an alcohol potential on them which is related to specific gravity. The only way to tell alcohol percentage this way is to know prefermentation gravity and post fermentation gravity, subtract the difference and do some math.

Using the potential alcohol percentage scale essentially skips some math but you still have to subtract prefermentation alcohol percentage from post fermentation alcohol percentage. Check a finished alcohol beer sometime, it will read almost zero Potential alcohol but that doesn't mean there is no alcohol in it. And actually if the alcohol was boiled off and you were trying to measure it this way for some reason, the specific gravity would actually increase.

 

[Clayton]

i would think that keeping the fermentation aerobic rather than anaerobic would greatly reduce the alcohol produced , this could maybe be done with a aquaruim air pump , an inline micron filter and air stone, i would just try this during peak fermentaion

 

[cockybitz]

mmmmm.... oxidized beer. No thanks.

 

[CoffeeJoe17]

I have been sober for 2 1/2 years and I really love the taste of beer. I am interested in homebrewing again. Did it many years ago and had some great brews. However i am wondering how to get it right without the alcohol. I understand why some people would think its pointless to drink beer with out the alcohol. If they had lived my life they would understand..... Brewing and drinking beer is a great hobby and I really enjoyed sharing my brews. Anyone have tips on how to get started on this again?

 

[TwoFortySX]

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.

Wow. This post is 2+ years old and it managed to rub me the wrong way at 10am on a Sunday morning. I am sure that the poster of this comment will never see my reply to it but I dont care.

My mother was a "raging" alcoholic for most of my childhood. I have a very relevant experience living through this disease. She ended up seeking help when I was about 16 years old. I spent numerous hours sitting in on A.A. meetings are hearing how alcohol ruined their lives.

A year or so ago she started her slow decline into relapse again. Guess where that started? Non-Alcoholic beer. She convinced herself and everyone else around her that she just missed "the taste". I am sorry but for someone to be sober for 20+ years then to all of sudden crave the taste is clearly someone looking to drink again.

As for a pregnant woman, if your drinking non-alcoholic beer, GUESS WHAT? You are still ingesting alcohol. The baby is still having that small amount of alcohol course through its body! Guess what? That small amount of alcohol can still have damaging effects on a fetus! In America it is generally recommended that a pregnant woman ingest ZERO. NONE. NO ALCOHOL.

Lastly, Thinking that anyone who enjoys beer for the alcohol that it contains, is a binge drinking college kid would be complete ignorance.

To sum this all up, alcohol is a key component to the flavor of a beer. If you love the taste of beer, then you love the taste of alcohol. If you want to brew session beer to limit your alcohol consumption, I get it. If you want to brew near beer with barely any alcohol to limit your consumption, I get it. If you want to brew non-alcoholic beer to create a substitute for real beer, then I think you should rethink what you are really trying to do.

 

[cklages]

I have been sober for 2 1/2 years and I really love the taste of beer. I am interested in homebrewing again. Did it many years ago and had some great brews. However i am wondering how to get it right without the alcohol. I understand why some people would think its pointless to drink beer with out the alcohol. If they had lived my life they would understand..... Brewing and drinking beer is a great hobby and I really enjoyed sharing my brews. Anyone have tips on how to get started on this again?

If you read through the various threads on the topic, you will find that although heating the beer after fermentation will reduce the alcohol content, it is totally impossible to eliminate it all. You will hear from various people who obviously were not paying attention in high school science who will tell you the following:

At what temperature does finished beer boil? From what I recall, it will remain at the boiling temperature of ethanol (176 F?) until all of the ethanol boils off. Any temperature over 176 and the etOH absorbs the heat of the solution until etOH heat of vaporization is met and the etOH boils away, leaving behind the rest.

This is completely incorrect, water and ethanol mixtures have boiling points which correspond to concentration. As ethanol vapourizes, the boiling point of the mixture goes up, increasing the amount of water that vaporizes with the ethanol. You will know when all of the ethanol is gone, because all the water will be gone as well.

It is possible to significantly reduce alcohol content while water remains (into the realm of 1% or less) but it is not possible to eliminate it entirely.

 

[steakandale]

I didn't really want to, but I read this entire thing and I have a concern, off the OP that has not been addressed; If you are talking about a drug interaction with alcohol - I think you better FIND OUT if the interaction can occur at the very low ABV% most N/A beer does have... I don't think it can be made totally alcohol-free. Even distillation (because the process has a curve to it) leaves behind longer-chain volatiles that boil off too close to the water content and are left in the base liquid.

 

[superjunior]

I haven't read the 35+ posts on this two year old thread.
but can't you just brew as normal and not pitch any yeast to make a non-alcohol brew?

 

[ayoungrad]

You could - its called malta. They sell commercial varieties in latin food sections of supermarkets. Never bought it but I imagine it tastes just like sweet wort.

 

[steakandale]

CRUD I didn't catch the age of this thread. Where's the DELETE button?

That would make wort - if someone wants to drink that. Its about as much fun slurping the sugar-milk left after you eat all the Crunch-Berries

 

[rycov]

I haven't read the 35+ posts on this two year old thread.
but can't you just brew as normal and not pitch any yeast to make a non-alcohol brew?

all those sugars that you converted for the yeast to eat would not get eaten and end up in your final product. it would be pretty sweet and probably not taste too much like beer. also the fermentation provides some flavors too, besides alcohol.

 

[rycov]

CRUD I didn't catch the age of this thread. Where's the DELETE button?

That would make wort - if someone wants to drink that. Its about as much fun slurping the sugar-milk left after you eat all the Crunch-Berries

so your trying to say its delicious?

 

[Zamial]

Necroed...BOO.

However, It did occur to me that if someone wanted to make some NA beer all they would need to do is make said beer as normal. Rack to a pot that will hold the volume and slowly heat the beer to 175F for 15 min. DO NOT BOIL IT. Then cold crash the brew and force carb. This sounds like a great job for a hacked Miller/Coors Home Draft system if I ever heard of one...

 

[pokeacow]

bringing this thread back from the dead.
Gonna try make an NA beer. Everything i've read says to use fresh rehydrated yeast after boiling off the alcohol. Could i just use some of the yeast cake left from the fermentation? Stir it in along with the sugar for bottle carbing

 

[Zamial]

bringing this thread back from the dead.
Gonna try make an NA beer. Everything i've read says to use fresh rehydrated yeast after boiling off the alcohol. Could i just use some of the yeast cake left from the fermentation? Stir it in along with the sugar for bottle carbing

Renecroed...

Using yeast will make alcohol, the very evil you are trying to NOT have in it! If you can have a little alcohol just make a 2% ABV ale...

 

[pokeacow]

Its all good if it has some, but mainly negligible alcohol in it. I just think it would be pretty dope to have some NA beers i can enjoy during weekdays, while studying, before driving etc without having to intake all the alcohol.

From what i've read, bottle carbing with sugar/yeast adds ~0.25% alcohol content. The initial boil off of the alcohol brings the 5% down to roughly 0.5%. So the final result would be approximately 0.75% abv which would be totally perfect. I've already got more than enough home brew alcohol on hand in my condo to get my stomach pumped a few dozen times. Currently i've got a batch of honey blonde, and a batch of red ale both almost finishing up in the carboy. I think i'll try split off like 1/3 of each of those batches into a large 8L cooking pot for heating and try this experiment out.

I'll report back in a few weeks with the results. I really dont see any reason why fresh rehydrated yeast would be better than some yeast cake mixed in

 

[pokeacow]

Well i got busy and it took me longer than expected to get around to bottling. But a week i finally did it. I put like 5 liters at a time into my large cooking pot, heated it up to ~180° using my meat thermometer and then just stirred it every once in a while and let it heat for a good half hour. Then put it back it all back into a bucket, added the priming sugar and let it sit outside on the porch to cool down and then i stirred in a good amount of yeast cake from the bottom of the first bucket.

I've tried a few so far, one yesterday and one a few days ago. Tastes pretty decent. Pretty much the same as normal beer thats only been bottled for a week. Im excited for them to finish and settle in the bottles. I still have to do the alcohol test where i pound a liter of them and see if i get buzzed. So far i've only drank the 500mL bottles slowly but i did not detect any significant buzz the way I would with a regular beer. I'll report back in a few more weeks after more extensive sampling has been done

 

[Intercom]

I would really like to try this as well. Pokeacow, would you be interested in sharing one of your recepies?

What I can buy of Non-Alcoholic beer where I live taste horrible...

 

[cjgenever]

I would really like to try this as well. Pokeacow, would you be interested in sharing one of your recepies?

What I can buy of Non-Alcoholic beer where I live taste horrible...

Are you saying that there is a tasty commercial alcohol free beer? Please enlighten me!

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[pokeacow]

All my beer I make comes from the "Brewhouse" kit series. I just fermented the 'honey blonde' kit and then cooked off the alcohol

You pretty much use whatever recipe you like as a normal beer, and then it winds up tasting pretty similar as the non-alcoholic version. I dont understand why the commercial non-alcoholic beer all tastes like piss. Makes no sense.

 

[shelly14]

I have been homebrewing for quite a while and recently had to cut out the alcohol. I truly enjoy brewing and have an extensive recipe collection that is tried and true. I would love to start brewing again and replicate some of my favorites in a N/A or really Low alcohol version. Going to try an American Red in the oven method first, maybe a half batch. If anyone out there has any good advice or tips please drop me a line, Thanks! Sheldon.

 

[cormano]

If you read through the various threads on the topic, you will find that although heating the beer after fermentation will reduce the alcohol content, it is totally impossible to eliminate it all. You will hear from various people who obviously were not paying attention in high school science who will tell you the following:



This is completely incorrect, water and ethanol mixtures have boiling points which correspond to concentration. As ethanol vapourizes, the boiling point of the mixture goes up, increasing the amount of water that vaporizes with the ethanol. You will know when all of the ethanol is gone, because all the water will be gone as well.

It is possible to significantly reduce alcohol content while water remains (into the realm of 1% or less) but it is not possible to eliminate it entirely.

I feel like most of you just ignored this great post…

 

[Gameface]

I feel like most of you just ignored this great post…

I especially like the line where he says you will know when you have boiled off all the alcohol because the water will be gone as well.