Can anyone tell me why there don’t seem to be many posts regarding low alcohol brewing? Is it simply too pathogenically risky to target very low ABV?
I am considering brewing a recipe for a 1% IPA published by David Heath that uses a high temp mash (174F) with the Windsor yeast (Maltotriose negative). It aligns with the Lallemand paper on low/no alcohol brewing here.
I think it’s just chance. There just don’t happen to be that many low-alcohol brewers over here. I do a reasonable number of low (≈2%) ABV brews. I’m working on … I won’t say “clone” … on my own take on Petit Prince. But I think I’m an outlier.
There’s a low/no alcohol Facebook group that’s reasonably active. From a food safety pov, it’s more about pH than ABV. As long as the yeast has enough nutrients to get the pH down to 4.2 or so, that should suppress botulinum.
Can you tell me the name of that facebook group?
Thank you Drew. I will check out the FB group.
If you are wiling to share your homage to Petit Prince, I’d love to see it.
FWIW the recipe for the 1% IPA I am considering brewing can be found here. Also the Ultra Low Brewing web site has a handful of experiments that I found interesting.
Welcome Ellsworth.
It’s still evolving, but it’s generally:
50-50 Pils / Wheat mash low for OG about 1.020-1.025
~5 IBUs of Strisselspalt or similar
Bootleg Biology sells Jester King’s house strain, but I’ve used other mixed cultures too.
Edit: Homebrew Finds has several recipes from Jester King’s blog archived on their site.
I wouldn’t deem nonalchs to be safe without filtration & preservatives. On the other hand, virtually no harmful pathogens can develop in real beer.
Acidity will keep you safe.
The challenge is how do you give the good bugs time and nutrients to lower the pH but without producing alcohol while still creating an end product that tastes like beer… ?
Personally, if I want something completely non-intoxicating (as opposed to just low-alcohol), rather than wrestling with NA beer, I just make kombucha.
I pulled the trigger and brewed this. The recipe is a 3 day fermentation which finished on time at 1.1% ABV. Kegged it today and I have to say it tastes pretty good for 1%. Anxious to try it fully carbed.
Edit: I acidified to 3.97 ph in the finished beer.
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I think that the problem indeed IS the risk associated with making a brew that could readily be contaminated by bacteria. There are some very good blogs and commentary out there about what you should do if you decide to try a NA beer, let alone serve it to your friends! Plus, there are some very acceptable NA beers available commercially (although many, especaiily those from breweries I patronize regularly, are dreadful).
I’m not looking to brew NA beer just lower alcohol. I know the 1% brew I did is pushing the limits of LA beer. Next one I do is going to be in the 2.5-3% range.