Fake beer

[Bulav1]

Greetings:
Unfortunately, with the meds I am now taking I need to only drink alcohol-free beer - the fake stuff. I have a Mr. Beer 2 gal kit. How do I go about removing alcohol from the beer or preventing it from developing? I have a five gal decent kit I used in the past - which has found a new home - and I want to keep production of near-beer to only 2 gal, so I can test drive different recipes without having too much zero beer lying around. Surprisingly, there are several good German and Belgian fake wheat beers to be found at some liquor stores, so I’m hoping to recreate some of those.
And yes - life can suck, sometimes….
Thanks for your input!
Rich

[bpgreen]

Welcome! I posted about this recently: viewtopic.php?p=109741#p109741

The usual way to make NA (Non Alcohol) beer is to make a regular batch, then heat the wort to 175° F for 15 minutes to drive off the alcohol. After doing that, if you're kegging, you proceed as usual. If you're naturally carbonating, you'll need to add some yeast since heating to 175 killed all of the yeast.

Technically, the natural carbonation process will add a small amount of alcohol, but it's pretty minimal (maybe 0.5%).

One thing to note is that when you drive off the alcohol, you'll be concentrating some other flavors (especially hops), so you may want to cut back on the amount of hops that you use (or end up with a hoppier than intended beer, which may be ok).

As an aside, I ended up not following through on making NA beer myself because even though I've retired, I don't seem to have a lot of free time.

[mashani]

One thing to note is that when you drive off the alcohol, you'll be concentrating some other flavors (especially hops), so you may want to cut back on the amount of hops that you use (or end up with a hoppier than intended beer, which may be ok).

You will also be driving off some of the aroma compounds from the hops (what you are concentrating is the bitterness more than anything and potentially changing the flavor). So if it is intended to be dry hopped / have a hop nose, it might be good to add some "hop tea" to the bottling bucket after it cools to get some aroma back in there. What exactly you will lose from the hops depends on the kinds of hops, as different hop oils will survive more effectively than others. IE strong orange like citrus from say centennial may survive nearly fully intact, but the floral part may not. Fruity stuff from other hops may not.

[John Sand]

Welcome aboard, good luck with your NA brews!

[Bulav1]

Thanks for the input! Using the mr. Beer keg and corresponding directions, I have several questions. Sorry that they are so elementary, but I have been in “home-brewing retirement” for a number of years:
1. Is the UME substituting for the “booster”?
2. It sounds like I am first only bringing the UME/booster to a boil with the water, then adding the HME once removed from the heat = wort, correct?
3. Do I then add yeast and reheat this mixture to 175 for 15 min to kill off the yeast? What would be the point of adding yeast at this stage, only to kill it off?
4. The instructions say to pour the hot wort into the keg containing one gal of cool water, then to sprinkle yeast into the keg. Won’t this create the full alcohol beer I’m trying to avoid?
5. Do I still add 3/4 tsp to each 12 oz bottle for the carbonation, or is the wort providing sufficient sugar?
Thanks again - I’m looking forward to getting started!
Rich

[bpgreen]

1. Yes and no. UME is unhopped malt extract. Booster it's a mixture od fermentable and unremarkable sugars. Both will add alcohol, but UME will also add body, flavor, and mouthfeel. IMO, UME is more of an upgrade than a replacement.

2. I haven't made one of these kits in a long time, but I thought the booster, UME, and HME are all added after the boil. Then, you add cold water to bring it to the correct volume and cool it off.

3. You add the yeast once the wort is cooled to 80° (or lower). Then you let it ferment for 2-3 weeks. You heat to 175 to drive off the alcohol, not to kill the yeast. The yeast getting killed is a side effect. If you're bottling, you'll need to add some yeast so the sugar will carbonate it. Note that this will create some alcohol, but the amount will be minimal.

4. Yes. Follow those directions. You'll make full alcohol beer. There's no getting around that. You make the beer as usual, then drive off the alcohol.

5. You'll still add the sugar. In addition, you'll need to add a small amount of yeast, since driving off the alcohol also killed the yeast.