Ways to reduce ABV

[seadad9903]

I have a recipe I like the taste of and want to brew a lower alcohol version. What are the ways to do that and still maintain the taste/color/etc of the recipe?

 

[ruger988]

Whats the recipe?

 

[Harry482]

Use less base malt.

 

[seadad9903]

7 lb Maris Otter
2 1/2 lb Carafoam
1 lb 6oz Crystal 40
1 oz Chocolate malt
.75 oz Colombus at first wort hop
.25 oz Columbus at 80 min
.75 oz Amarillo 30 min whirlpool
.75 oz Columbus 30 min whirlpool

 

[BeerLoverHere]

Mash at higher temps: 153 or so instead of 149/150

Use a yeast that does not attenuate well

 

[Hello]

Use less base malt.

But if you adjust that, you may have to adjust all other grain.

 

[CUrchin]

Find an online calculator, plug in the recipe, and then adjust until you get where you want to be. Keep an eye on your bitterness ratio so the beer remains balanced. Try to keep it within a style guideline.

 

[ReverbDude]

Accidentally use too much water and not check your readings.... :smack:

 

[Calder]

I'd reduce the base malt by a few lbs, and replace it with a half lb of aromatic

Mash at higher temps: 153 or so instead of 149/150

Use a yeast that does not attenuate well

That will just result in a sweeter beer.

 

[MattyIce]

How much of a change are you trying make? From what to what?

I use Beersmith for my recipes. You can enter your entire recipe and process/equipment then use a couple clicks to adjust the gravity.

 

[cjgenever]

1) all specialty malts remain. Instead of so much c40 diversify with 8 oz c60 and 14 oz c40. Caramel malt stays at same% this way but with more depth of flavor

2) reduce ibu to balance, but only slightly. Remember, you are aiming to reduce abv. Not body, mouthfeel or flavor. Depending on preferences you can move some of the additions back to reduce ibu and enhance aroma. The bigger aroma gives the expectation of a beer bigger than it is.

3) I would say add some dextrin malt, but you already have a lot of carafoam so you're good there.

4) drop some base out of the recipe. The mo has a distinct biscuit tone to it that will be missing so Maybe use only three pounds mo and add 1lb of biscuit

5) mash HIGH. I'd say shoot for 160°f for no longer than 45 min. Do a starch test though. You still need full conversion and if your off just a bit at this high a temp you may denature your enzymes. If your not set up to get exact mash temps then go a little lower 158°f.

6) use a less attenuative yeast that will give a like flavor profile. I.e. I think There are some English strains that attenuate less than cal ale and don't throw all the esters if fermented at 58°.

Let us know what you decide and how it all turns out!

 

[Gavin C]

Check out Biermuncher's thread. How I neutered my beer. Its a sticky in the All-grain section I think and a great read. Probably not what you want to do but thought it was a great read.

 

[Natdavis777]

Check out Biermuncher's thread. How I neutered my beer. Its a sticky in the All-grain section I think and a great read. Probably not what you want to do but thought it was a great read.

+1
Best way I can think of keeping body while dropping the abv. I say this bc my friend who is a local owner/microbrewer who focuses on session beers has a hop forward session ale (3.2%) that has great hop character, but has the body of a glass of water. It would really be a great beer if the body was there.

 

[cjgenever]

I looked through my library this morning. A lot of the information I gave earlier in this thread came from a brew strong episode labeled session beers . Google search brew strong session beers and go to the brewing network website where you can download the mp3 or listen for free. There is a wealth of information in that episode about how to do exactly what you're trying to do here

 

[Qhrumphf]

1) all specialty malts remain. Instead of so much c40 diversify with 8 oz c60 and 14 oz c40. Caramel malt stays at same% this way but with more depth of flavor

2) reduce ibu to balance, but only slightly. Remember, you are aiming to reduce abv. Not body, mouthfeel or flavor. Depending on preferences you can move some of the additions back to reduce ibu and enhance aroma. The bigger aroma gives the expectation of a beer bigger than it is.

3) I would say add some dextrin malt, but you already have a lot of carafoam so you're good there.

4) drop some base out of the recipe. The mo has a distinct biscuit tone to it that will be missing so Maybe use only three pounds mo and add 1lb of biscuit

5) mash HIGH. I'd say shoot for 160°f for no longer than 45 min. Do a starch test though. You still need full conversion and if your off just a bit at this high a temp you may denature your enzymes. If your not set up to get exact mash temps then go a little lower 158°f.

This depends on how low you're going. If you're looking for 4-5% ABV I wouldn't mash that high, maybe 154-155. If you're looking for a beer 3% or below, then yes, I'd mash at 158-160.

6) use a less attenuative yeast that will give a like flavor profile. I.e. I think There are some English strains that attenuate less than cal ale and don't throw all the esters if fermented at 58°.

Let us know what you decide and how it all turns out!

Agree on the English yeast, but many English yeasts if you ferment that cold they're going to flocc out like a rock and may stall your fermentation. I would go ~64. Will leave some esters behind, but can still quite clean for most English yeasts.

Other than that, I agree with all of this.

OP, what's the style you're going for and what was the source of the recipe? This is kind of all over the place. That's an astronomical amount of dextrin malt and I'm curious what the justification is.

 

[stevehardt]

I have a recipe I like the taste of and want to brew a lower alcohol version. What are the ways to do that and still maintain the taste/color/etc of the recipe?

Have an efficiency that sucks as bad as mine usually does.

I realize this isn't especially helpful, but I think the other responses pretty much cover it

 

[cjgenever]

This depends on how low you're going. If you're looking for 4-5% ABV I wouldn't mash that high, maybe 154-155. If you're looking for a beer 3% or below, then yes, I'd mash at 158-160.



Agree on the English yeast, but many English yeasts if you ferment that cold they're going to flocc out like a rock and may stall your fermentation. I would go ~64. Will leave some esters behind, but can still quite clean for most English yeasts.

Other than that, I agree with all of this.

OP, what's the style you're going for and what was the source of the recipe? This is kind of all over the place. That's an astronomical amount of dextrin malt and I'm curious what the justification is.

I'd expect the abv of this recipe to be in the 5.5% range already. Between Crystal and dextron this recipe is already very unfermentable. I recommended OP consider all other things I mentioned because it sounds like OP wants to make this low abv, not just sessionable. I looks sessionable already.

I agree it would be nice to have a little more info on process and typical numbers recorded on this brew

 

[seadad9903]

Sorry I took so long to look at the replies, and thanks for the info.

How much of a change are you trying make? From what to what?

7% to in the 4% area.

Check out Biermuncher's thread. How I neutered my beer. Its a sticky in the All-grain section I think and a great read. Probably not what you want to do but thought it was a great read.

I'll check out that thread

OP, what's the style you're going for and what was the source of the recipe? This is kind of all over the place. That's an astronomical amount of dextrin malt and I'm curious what the justification is.

I'd expect the abv of this recipe to be in the 5.5% range already. Between Crystal and dextron this recipe is already very unfermentable. I recommended OP consider all other things I mentioned because it sounds like OP wants to make this low abv, not just sessionable. I looks sessionable already.

I agree it would be nice to have a little more info on process and typical numbers recorded on this brew

It's an IPA I did in Beersmith. No specific reason for that much dextrine. Had never seen a guideline on what you should use. The beer ended up fairly good, the ABV was lower than what BS said it would be (5 vs 7) the measured efficiency was in the low 50% using 3.5 gal BIAB with store crushed grains.

I'll also look at the video cjgenever referenced

 

[cjgenever]

Ok, did you figure the efficiency or is that from the software? Mash efficiency or brewhouse? SG, OG, FG?

Also, I would try replacing ~50% of the cara foam with cara aroma.

The episode is a mp3

Couldn't hurt to brew something based on the tips you've received. There's not much to loose with your batch size. Good luck, report back

 

[seadad9903]

Software did the math, I have problems with 2+2. Brewhouse eff was 44%, mash eff was 53%. OG - 1.050, FG - 1.020

What's the difference between the two?

Free tips and advice are one of the best things about this place. Always seems to be someone who has run into every problem that come up.

I'll run a batch next week and see what happens.

Happy New Year to everyone and stay safe. I'm headed to a party!

 

[Braufessor]

I have been brewing several batches of 4% "IPA" recently and have found some real success in making a low alcohol, hoppy beer that still has good body. Some of this is "in general" and may not be specific to your recipe - but it might give you some ideas... This is the thread where I outline some of the things that have worked well for me:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/finally-good-session-ipa-505376/

More specifically for your specific beer.......
The only "real" way to reduce alcohol is to reduce base malt. I would maybe take out 2lbs of Maris and put back one pound of munich for instance. You could also cut your caramel malt in half, but use a higher lovibond like 60-80 to maintain flavor and color. Could tweak color with an extra ounce of carafa II or III if needed.
You could cut the carafoam back .... that is a lot. Maybe get rid of a pound of carafoam and replace back with a quarter lb each of wheat and flaked oats or barley. Those are the types of things I would look to do.
1968/002 are yeasts that make for nice session ales because they leave the beer in the 1.012-1.014 range and leaves the beer malty/full bodied. It also drops crystal clear easily.

 

[olie]

(Yes, I know: old thread. But my question is very similar-but-different.)

Got here via search; I want to lower ABV after the fact. That is, the beer is already brewed, and it's much too high ABV for my taste.

Obviously, I can add water. I'm curious if there are any other tricks that maybe won't thin down the taste so much. (I'm concerned that adding water will make it taste like "watered down beer".)

 

[pvtpublic]

Brew a mild

 

[mac_1103]

Mix it with some random flavorless low ABV commercial beer.

 

[AlexKay]

(Yes, I know: old thread. But my question is very similar-but-different.)

Got here via search; I want to lower ABV after the fact. That is, the beer is already brewed, and it's much too high ABV for my taste.

Obviously, I can add water. I'm curious if there are any other tricks that maybe won't thin down the taste so much. (I'm concerned that adding water will make it taste like "watered down beer".)

Brewing and then adding water is a standard industry practice. You've almost certainly had beers made this way. If you go this route, then at the minimum you want to boil the water first (and then cool it) to get rid of dissolved oxygen.

If you've got the time to wait a few weeks (that is, it's in a keg and cold), you could brew a very low ABV beer and then blend. The oxygen issue would be settled, and you'd get some taste along with the dilution.

If you're looking to do something right now because it's sitting in the bottling bucket waiting, boiling and then adding water is all I've got.

 

[day_trippr]

Dilution does sound sad but I don't see a viable post-brewed alternative.
If I was of the mind to brew low alcohol, along with all the recipe and mash temperature tricks I'd definitely look into this yeast strain...

SafBrew™ LA‑01

Fermentis SafBrew LA-01 beer yeast is ideal to brew low-alcohol beers and non-alcoholic beers. This brewer's yeast has a subtle aroma profile.

fermentis.com

Cheers!

 

[brewbama]

I have a recipe I like the taste of and want to brew a lower alcohol version. What are the ways to do that and still maintain the taste/color/etc of the recipe?

I brew low(er) ABV session beers. I prefer to leave recipe qty pretty close to the original recipe If I can. I don’t want to dilute the wort or beer. I like full body, full flavor beers. To do that I:

1) open the gap of my mill.
2) mash in at higher temp range
3) do No Sparge Mash
4) 30 min, low wattage boil
5) choose low attenuating yeast

 

[Jem]

Dilution does sound sad but I don't see a viable post-brewed alternative.
If I was of the mind to brew low alcohol, along with all the recipe and mash temperature tricks I'd definitely look into this yeast strain...

SafBrew™ LA‑01

Fermentis SafBrew LA-01 beer yeast is ideal to brew low-alcohol beers and non-alcoholic beers. This brewer's yeast has a subtle aroma profile.

fermentis.com

Cheers!

Any suggestions where to purchase LA-01 in the US?

 

[day_trippr]

Good question. I didn't know Fermentis hasn't been packaging LA-01 for the homebrewing market, so one would have to seek "underground" supply channels, someone breaking up 500g bricks. Apparently the need for post-fermentation pasteurization has Fermentis reluctant to put it in the hands of us mere plebes

Oh well...