NA Beer ideas

[bpgreen]

I'm thinking about trying my hand at making some NA beer for a couple of reasons.

I recently posted something about drinking NA beer as a recovery drink after exercise.

At my last doctor visit, I asked about beer drinking, and my doctor said that after age 62, we should limit our alcohol intake to 1 drink per day (and stopping during the week and drinking 7 on Saturday doesn't count). I've been drinking IPAs and DIPAs, so I should probably have been cutting back even further. But I wasn't doing a very good job at cutting back to 1 per day (even though I was cheating and pouring pints). My blood pressure has been stubbornly high, even with medication. So I decided to take a break for a while. This may end up becoming permanent.

I know that the usual way for a homebrewer to make NA beer is to brew a batch, then heat the resulting beer to 175 or so for 15 minutes. Since ethanol has a lower boiling point than water (173), heating to 175 will boil off the alcohol and leave the rest behind. The result will be more bitter than the starting point, but I can deal with that. I've got two batches in fermenters now, and it should be trivial totransfer to the Mash and Boil and keep at 175 for 15 minutes (since I'm at altitude, maybe I'll just bring it to 170). I've got kegs, so I can just force carbonate, rather than add yeast and priming sugar.

But I had an idea for future batches. Since my plan is to use it as a recovery drink, maybe it makes sense to keep more of the sugars. Instead of doing the hop boil, cooling, adding yeast, then fermenting, maybe I could stop after the hop boil and cooling. I could then keg and force carbonate. Since it's not being fermented, I'd either need to use a lot more hops, or not think of it as a beer, but more of a hopped malt beverage. If I take the second approach, it would be much sweeter, but I'd be using it as sort of a Gatorade replacement, so maybe that would be ok.

I've got a 1 gallon ukeg, so I could do some experimental small batches.

Thoughts?

[John Sand]

I've thought of low alcohol beers, and read some. If I were to make an NA, I would start with a small beer. There are grains that add body and mouthfeel, and yeasts that add flavor. Belgian Rye?
Good luck, keep us posted.

[Beer-lord]

I can't recall any specific podcasts now but if you search thru some of them, you will fine some that discuss NA beers. I know over the years that Basic Brewing Radio have discussed this a few times.

I'm with you, I don't drink every day but usually on a Sunday, thru the course of a day I may have 3 and I too like the big boy beers. If I could find or make a good NA beer, I'd gladly do that but it's got to be just as good.
There are a few that we can get here that are starting to improve though for me, just not there yet.

[bpgreen]

I can't recall any specific podcasts now but if you search thru some of them, you will fine some that discuss NA beers. I know over the years that Basic Brewing Radio have discussed this a few times.

I'm with you, I don't drink every day but usually on a Sunday, thru the course of a day I may have 3 and I too like the big boy beers. If I could find or make a good NA beer, I'd gladly do that but it's got to be just as good.
There are a few that we can get here that are starting to improve though for me, just not there yet.

I do better with reading than listening, so I'm not big on podcasts.

I found a few articles on brewing sites. In addition to the traditional methods of boiling off the alcohol, there's also a yeast that barely attenuates. It makes low alcohol (~2%) beer. My goal is <=0.5%. I may try a 1 gallon batch without fermenting as a test, but I think I'm going to end up doing the full beet making process followed by heating to 170° F.

[mashani]

I found a few articles on brewing sites. In addition to the traditional methods of boiling off the alcohol, there's also a yeast that barely attenuates. It makes low alcohol (~2%) beer. My goal is <=0.5%. I may try a 1 gallon batch without fermenting as a test, but I think I'm going to end up doing the full beet making process followed by heating to 170° F.

It is technically "unsafe" to make beer that is < 2%, because the level of PH and alcohol at that point is what makes all of the pathogens that could produce toxins later die.

The risk is low, but it does exist.

That said, using the heat method to drive off the alcohol after the fact probably kills any pathogens that got in and were not killed during the fermentation process and solves this.

But I personally wouldn't brew anything much less then 3% as a starting point, I think. You can make very flavorful 3% beer, IE something like a British Mild would be a good place to start and then drive off the alcohol via heat process and see. I think NA pale lagers typically taste like garbage and wouldn't even bother with those, I'd be all about darker styles with crystal malts as my starting point or if pale, then something highly hopped.

FWIW, a yeast like Lallemand London ale doesn't eat maltotriose, so a beer mashed at a high temperature and using that yeast can have a lot more "stuff" in it without producing as much alcohol and leaving more body / malty goodness behind. We are talking perhaps a 15% bigger grain bill if you were to mash in the mid/upper 154+ range. So it may be a good thing to use as a traditional yeast in such a beer, less alcohol left to boil off for a bigger beer.

[bpgreen]

Thanks for the info. That answers my question about whether I can skip the fermentation process altogether.

Sounds like the plan is to brew as usual, then heat to drive off the alcohol. Seems like kind of a shame to do, but I've got a bunch of grains (and hops and yeast) and I may as well use it all up.

[bpgreen]

Another post reminded me of this, so I thought I"d circle back. I ended up not making NA beer. Even though i've retired, I don't seem to have a lot of free time, so I haven't been brewing (especially not when I'd need to take extra steps to remove the alcohol).