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]

Are you brewing beer for your boys now?

[MrC]

Funny you should say that Mike. We were discussing that yesterday and at 1.5% it could be a goer.

[Mike Neilson]

Well before bed anyway a few bottles after dinner for them on Friday and Saturday nights make for enjoyable parent time!!

[jt]

What didn't you trust about the S-33 Mr C - you thought it was dodgey, or just not appropriate rot this beer ?

[MrC]

The S-33 is the old yeast that came with the Macs kits. I've used them before with good results but doubling the amount of yeast and hydrating it. I hydrated two packs yesterday and it was too brown for my liking and smelt extra fruity. I then remembered an emergency pack of S-04 that I have lying around that is due to expire in the next couple of months so went for that.

The reason I went for S-33 in the original recipe was because it has always been a low attenuator for me and I thought that would help keep the ABV down. Somehow I don't think the yeast will make or break this beer :-)

[Reviled]

How many grav points do you think it will ferment? Surely cant be much at all...

Also just a thought - dont you need to mash oats for conversion?

[MrC]

How many grav points do you think it will ferment?
Hard to know. According to the calculations it should come down to around 1.003 with an ABV of 1.5%.
I don't trust the calculations on this beer though, I can't see it getting that low. Only time will tell.

dont you need to mash oats for conversion?
I thought about this and I've read conflicting information. Ultimately I think this beer will be a little starchy due to the oats and the brown malt but it's a trade of for flavour and body. I've had good results with steeping brown malt in the past but I've never used rolled oats in a beer before. I chose a dark beer style for a reason ;-)

[MrC]

So I'm planning on kegging Metric Brown tonight with the intention of carbing it and then bottling it as soon as it settles down (likely Saturday). Why? Coz I don't want to add priming sugar (to keep the ABV as low as possible) and I need the keg space.

Do you think there are any issues associated with kegging, carbing and then bottling within a couple of days?

[Reviled]

Alot of people do that Mr Cherry, I allways bottle from the keg if im going out to a bbq or something, allthough sometimes I find if I leave some of them for a couple of weeks they get a drop in carbonation, slightly, but my beers are so lowly carbonated in the first place that a small loss can be significant...

My method is to turn the serving pressure down to a dribble, like 10KPA and dribble it down the side of the bottle, capping under foam to avoid oxidisation...

[Stu McKinlay]

same same

sweet Cheery

[denimglen]

Do you think there are any issues associated with kegging, carbing and then bottling within a couple of days?

Nah.

As long as you're happy with the carbonation level and clarity you're good to go.

If you've got picnic taps I would suggest this. A piece of 3/8ths soft copper works just as well as a broken racking cane.

[Mike Neilson]

Nope not at all!! As long as it hasnt been attacked by a .5 - 1 micron filter you should be sweet, there is allways yeast in the beer!! It will scavenge the 02!! just make you sure you cap the bottle while its full and with foam or fob what ever you call it.