Strange question..... How to Make Non alcoholic beer?

[KimmiC]

Me again.

I know this must be a strange question but is there a way to make homemade NON alcoholic beer? Reason I ask is because my husband does not drink alcohol. However he LOVES beer. He just had way too many back in the day and has been off the sauce for 15 years. Whenever we dine out, he always gets Buckler, Clausthaler or Kaliber.

 

[mascervesa]

Read this byo article, saw it in an earlier post.
http://byo.com/stories/item/263-brew-a-great-non-alcoholic-beer

 

[KimmiC]

Thanks! Great article - I bookmarked it

 

[LovesIPA]

There was another user on HBT that did this.

After fermentation is complete, he heated the beer up (not to a boil, but I forget the temperature) and this drives off most of the alcohol. I didn't bookmark the thread though.

 

[chocotaco]

Here's an idea - brew the beer with NO hop boil and ferment it out. Once fermentation is complete, do another boil and add the hops according to schedule. Chill and bottle/keg, repitching yeast if doing natural carbonation. That way you should be able to get a nearly non-alcoholic beer with hop flavor and aroma.

Obviously I haven't tried it, because I'm not that interested in non-alcoholic beer. But if I saw a non-alcoholic IPA on the shelf I would give it a try just for fun.

 

[KimmiC]

Nice but I have to have ZERO sauce in it. He won't even use mouthwash with alcohol in it. I like him better w/ no alcohol in him LOL. But he likes me with alcohol - go figure LOL!

 

[chocotaco]

The only way to have ZERO alcohol (like 0.0%) is to not ferment in the first place. You can boil off alcohol, either with heat or vacuum, but there will always be SOME amount left.

If you don't ferment, you won't have something resembling beer IMHO.

Even the "non-alcoholic" beers that your husband gets at the bar most likely have a tiny percentage alcohol. In the USA, they can have up to 0.5% ABV and still be sold as non-alcoholic.

 

[LovesIPA]

Yeah there is almost no way to completely remove ALL alcohol from anything. Even when you cook with wine, there is some residual alcohol left.

 

[LovesIPA]

Found the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/creating-na-how-i-neutered-my-beer-39433/

 

[feinbera]

As chocotaco said, even "non-alcoholic" beers have about 0.5% ABV; this is a level you should be able to achieve at home, even if you bottle carb, which should only add about 0.25%.

 

[KimmiC]

Thanks for posting that thread!

 

[DuckiesRevenge]

From what I've read you can drive of all of the alcohol by this method. The way it gets back to the 0.5% abv is with the natural carbing. When you add the yeast and priming sugar you create alcohol. I would imagine that if you kegged it you wouldnt have that problem and you would have 0.0% abv and it could still be carbonated.

 

[Elysium]

Here's an idea - brew the beer with NO hop boil and ferment it out. Once fermentation is complete, do another boil and add the hops according to schedule. Chill and bottle/keg, repitching yeast if doing natural carbonation. That way you should be able to get a nearly non-alcoholic beer with hop flavor and aroma.

Obviously I haven't tried it, because I'm not that interested in non-alcoholic beer. But if I saw a non-alcoholic IPA on the shelf I would give it a try just for fun.

Very good idea. So basically all the hop aroma kinda stays in....instead of boiling off while you are getting rid of the alcohol.

One question: wouldnt an actual boil after fermentation is complete kinda destabilize the beer for long term storage?
As far as I know you dont boil the beer after fermentation, but heat it up to below boiling temp because alcohol can be driven off at lower temp (as opposed to water that requires boiling, 100ºC, temp.)

 

[dstranger99]

I've been considering this, because I do like the taste of a good beer without getting hammered. I may split a 5 gallon batch to 2.5

Here's my question: By doing half of the fermented beer at around 180 degrees in the stove for 30 minutes not only would I lose alcohol, but also hop flavor. At this point where could I add more hop flavor back to the beer?

And how would I check gravity ?.........

 

[LovesIPA]

Here's my question: By doing half of the fermented beer at around 180 degrees in the stove for 30 minutes not only would I lose alcohol, but also hop flavor. At this point where could I add more hop flavor back to the beer?

I probably would.

And how would I check gravity ?.........

With a hydrometer?

 

[Elysium]

Here's an idea - brew the beer with NO hop boil and ferment it out. Once fermentation is complete, do another boil and add the hops according to schedule. Chill and bottle/keg, repitching yeast if doing natural carbonation. That way you should be able to get a nearly non-alcoholic beer with hop flavor and aroma.

Obviously I haven't tried it, because I'm not that interested in non-alcoholic beer. But if I saw a non-alcoholic IPA on the shelf I would give it a try just for fun.

You will have way too much water that boils off....but a really good idea. I think I'll just put a pellet of chinook or something into the bottle before bottling it. I am wondering if that's a good idea though.

 

[JimRausch]

I've neutered parts of 4 batches this Fall for a friend that's in the same boat as your husband. I heat it to 175-180 on the stove then place the kettle in the oven for 1/2 hour. Most important- make sure you check the temperature. My oven temp was off by about 25 * and my 1st test batch never dealcoholized. So on the other batches, I checked the temp. of the beer several times and adjusted the oven temperature.
I didn't notice a difference in flavor in regular vs. neutered, but all 4 batches were malty, not hoppy- a Scottish ale, a Honey Porter, a Graf, and a Vienna lager.
And during the research about the neutering process, I seem to remember that a chemist piped in that due to the nature of alcohol/water solution, you could never get to 0%ABV by heating. Can't remember his specific reasoning.

 

[angryyoungman]

I had to chime in because I was reading some of those "even non-alcoholic beer has some alcohol in it" comments. All beverages with fermentable sugars in them will have a small level of alcohol in them. In the US the difference between alcohol and no alcohol is .5%. This means any beverage under .5% ABV is non-alcoholic/ alcohol- free. It is common for all natural juices to have .5% ABV. This is do to the presence of wild yeast on the fruit and floating freely in the air. Hell, I've seen some stats that say an orange on the vine can be greater than .5% ABV. That's right, an orange itself. At .5% it is impossible to drink enough of the beverage to get alcohol into your bloodstream. Your body will digest the minuscule amount faster than you can drink. You're stomach would explode sooner than alcohol would enter your system.
If your husband had a previous problem with alcohol then even alcohol free beer is probably not the best idea. The psychological reaction to intoxicants by people who previously struggled with them can cause relapses. As in taste could cause a relapse. But, if he's safe with Kaliber and Buckler, non-alcoholic homebrew is probably alright.
Problems with alcohol are very unique because much of it has to do with the perception of it. People don't perceive orange juice as having alcohol in it, so it's okay. The fact is oj can have as much alcohol as non-alcoholic beer. It's all rather strange. I could go into it more, but the gist of it is, yes alcohol free beer has alcohol in it, so does non-alcoholic homebrew, but so does oj, grape juice, bananas foster, and plenty of other things. There's a fun intersection between psychological dependency, physical dependency, and social pressures that contribute to how alcohol effects people and how we understand what is and isn't "alcoholic."

 

[dstranger99]

I read where a malt beer with an already low ABV would work best. I chose a Scottish 60 shilling, ABV around 3.3 / Got one from Brewmaster's for $20.

And for many on this thread that's going on about 0.0 ABV, You just can't, you have to add active yeast and sugar to carb. That will bring it to at least 0.5% like other N/A's..

 

[balrog]

But if you keg, you eliminate the bottle conditioning fermentation of the priming sugar, don't you? I would think creating normally fermented beer, use 175-180 stove heat to drive off alcohol, hopping maybe then (there's a real time/amount experiment waiting to happen), and kegging for carbonation and you'd have the best chance for the lowest ABV homebrew.

 

[dstranger99]

I'm also still concerned about losing hop flavor during the stove part. Should I toss some hops in there for the last 10 minutes or so ??

 

[derek704]

Could you just skip adding hops to the initial boil, and just add them to the "evaporation" kettle post fermentation?

 

[dstranger99]

Could you just skip adding hops to the initial boil, and just add them to the "evaporation" kettle post fermentation?

Not if your splitting batches, I planned on 2.5 gallons real beer, and 2.5 gallons of N/A beer........

 

[Elysium]

Could you just skip adding hops to the initial boil, and just add them to the "evaporation" kettle post fermentation?

The alcohol boiling point is lower than the water boiling point....I am not sure that the bittering hop will fully be isomerized.

I am no expert...this is just my thought on this. I am still wondering how to add the bitterness/aroma/flavour after the alcohol is gone.

 

[helibrewer]

You cannot drive off all alcohol, this is why distillers can never get to 100% efficiency through heat distillation, some alcohol stays permanently bonded to water.

For hops you can use an iso-extract to get the bittering without boiling any hops. There are also plenty of extracts out there for aroma and flavor, these are routinely used throughout the brewing industry.

 

[Elysium]

You cannot drive off all alcohol, this is why distillers can never get to 100% efficiency through heat distillation, some alcohol stays permanently bonded to water.

For hops you can use an iso-extract to get the bittering without boiling any hops. There are also plenty of extracts out there for aroma and flavor, these are routinely used throughout the brewing industry.

also for aroma and flavour? I thought isomerized hop extract was just for bitterness.

P.S. I have just tried to search for specific hop extracts such as nugget hop extract, cascade hop extract....google gives me no matches.

 

[angryyoungman]

I read a post a while back that someone used a french press and boiling water to make a hop tea. They then added this back to the NA brew and there you have it. My strategy would be to estimate the volume lost from the second boil when you drive off alcohol, then use that much water to make a hop tea. You end up with the same volume as before and get your hop flavor and aroma in there.

 

[derek704]

Still being new I cannot say too much, however the "hop tea" idea sounds solid.

 

[angryyoungman]

The more I think about this the more I want to do it... I actually think the hop tea idea could really work. You could do alcohol free ipa´s with that. Adding back the hop tea wouldn´t be a huge detriment to mouth feel on lighter beers either like a bitter. Food for thought.

 

[helibrewer]

also for aroma and flavour? I thought isomerized hop extract was just for bitterness.



P.S. I have just tried to search for specific hop extracts such as nugget hop extract, cascade hop extract....google gives me no matches.

The iso are for bittering only. Here's a site with other varieties:

http://www.hoptech.com/collections/hop-oils-extracts



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