How Low Can You Go

[MrC]

... ABV% that is.

A colleague of mine asked me recently whether it is possible to brew a low alcohol beer without sacrificing all body, flavour & aroma. I've thinking about it and now I'm curious. I've brewed an American Wheat Beer that came in at 3.6% ABV due to 50% extraction efficiency, and the beer was really nice. The body was definitely on the lite side but the hops were nice and the beer was a nice easy quaffer.

I know some people may find this kind of talk offensive but wouldn't it be nice to have good beer you can drink all day and still be standing at the end of it.

So my topics for discussion are:

- What's the lowest ABV% beer you've ever brewed and what was it like?
- How low can you go and still have a nice beer? Can you go as low as 2% ?

[Mike Neilson]

Unless your not going to drink the beer within 1-2 months? than it could be another issue!! Those lo alc beers just dont like shabby technique!!

[jt]

shabby technique or Bad Practice

[Mike Neilson]

Thats why I here you make good beer jt!!

[jt]

No, I have shabby technique AND Bad Practice and after drinking almost only my own beer for so long have become accustomed to the what the judges frequently describe as, and I quote a selection of past competition scorecards ...
"funky, paper like, chocolate flat, infection masks malty flavours,thin body slightly sour, acidic/sour flavour, a bit light for style, slick mouthfeel - diacatyl, let down by some flaws, phenolic aromas, creamy sourness, metallic finish, solvent - no evidence of malt & hops - banana ester - lacking in body"

I'm sure that in the right beer that some of these would be gaining me points galore, but sadly not in the classes I entered

[Mike Neilson]

Bullshit jt!! I dont trust a word you say!! I here comment left right and centre of how good your beer is!!!

[Stu McKinlay]

He's certainly made Kid Chocolate his own... I'd say he's brewing the best NZ draughts in the country at the moment.

[Matthew]

Don't believe a word he says! It's all smoke, mirrors and Newlands fog.

Kid Choc first, PKB next...

[denimglen]

I reckon you'd be sweet.

Unless I'm missing something the main problem here is oxidation? Filling from the bottom of the bottle and capping on foam should reduce that to bugger all. If you wanted to go all out you could purge before you fill, wouldn't be that hard to rig something up.

[MrC]

Thanks guys. I've bottled from picnic taps before with success. I was more wondering about the lack of conditioning time in the keg prior to bottling. Sounds like she'll be OK though.

I agree about the sanitation Mike. at around 1% there won't much much alcohol to fight the fight. I plan on keeping the bottles cold all the time.

[Mike Neilson]

I like the Idea of Sanatise the botle ad some Sodium metabisulfite to purge your bottle, dump and fill out of the tap_filling from the bottom, let it fob then chuck on a cap quick smart!!

[MrC]

Just took the final gravity reading:
OG: 1.012
FG: 1.007
ABV: 1.2%

I'm reserving judgement on the taste and mouthfeel at the moment but I'l report back on the weekend. I get the feeling that carbonation will be critcal for this beer.

I dry hopped it with Styrian at 1g/l on last Saturday and the hops are coming through nicely with the dark malts. First impressions are that S-04 has come up trumps on this beer. Perhaps S-04 is suited to the smaller beers.

[jt]

Perhaps S-04 is suited to the smaller beers.

Darker beers for me