"Non-Alcoholic" brew for a friend

[kyle_cactus]

I have a cousin who's a close friend, and he only drinks "non-alcoholic" (actually low-alcohol) beer. He hasn't necessarily gotten a ton of support on this from friends and family. I got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas, and I just bottled my first ever batch of beer. I decided to try and convert a portion of my beer into low alcohol beer for my cousin. I did some research in advance and determined I could just "boil" out the alcohol. Since alcohol has a lower boiling point, I just held it between 180-185 F as best I could.

On bottling day I was "refreshing" my memory on how to do the low-alcohol part and found this article: http://byo.com/low-alcohol-brewing/item/263-brew-a-great-non-alcoholic-beer

I'm lucky I found it, because it pointed out that by heating my beer to cook off the alcohol I was also killing the yeast! My only method for carbonation is bottle conditioning, so I obviously needed yeast, but I didn't have any brewing yeast on hand (rookie mistake, I know! ). After cooking out the alcohol and cooling back to fermentation temp, I mixed in 1/4 cup of the yeasty solution left in the bottom of my fermenter. The process in general left me with a few questions:

- Was my approach to adding yeast back in correct?
- I stirred the beer while heating on the stovetop. It occurred to me half way through that my stirring was oxidizing the beer. Is this the bad kind of oxidation or the good kind? It's technically going through some additional fermentation in the bottle, so as I understand it that oxygen should help the yeast, but since this is a less intense fermentation, does that meant the oxygen will be left mostly sitting in the beer?
- I read that I should heat for 20-30 minutes. I got it up to temperature gradually (not sure if there's a point to this), and started the timer once I was above the boiling point for alcohol. After 30 minutes I still saw visible evaporation, so I went until 40 minutes. At that point I stopped even though evaporation was still visible. Does this mean alcohol was still cooking out, or was something else leaving my beer?!?
- Does 180 F sanitize my equipment? My guess is it depends on what you're sanitizing against. To be safe I boiled water in the pot before using it, but my temp probe never went above 190 since it was just in the heated low-alcohol beer.

Lot's of learning the first time through this process! But it was fun to try, even if it doesn't turn out the first time. My cousin and I are going to taste test in 3 or 4 weeks. I'll post back with the results!

For anyone who's interested, here's a more detailed description of my process:
- Poured 2 740 mL containers worth of beer into pot (not 740x2 since I allowed for headspace).
- Heated on stovetop, careful to hold it between 180 and 185. Slipped up as high as 189 on my instant read thermometer (designed for meat). Obviously temp was not uniform throughout, so I kept the tip near the bottom/center of the pot.
- Heated for 40 minutes.
- Stirred pot during 1st 15 minutes. Did not stir after that.
- Evaporation was still visible after 40 minutes, but I read that heating was only necessary/useful for 20-30 minutes, so I stopped.
- Dipped pot in ice bath until reaching temperature of 80-ish (sloshed it around again to make the temp more uniform before concluding it was actually at 80).
- Scooped about 1 tablespoon of yeast cake from the bottom of fermenter and mixed in.
- Bottled in 2 740 mL bottles.

 

[Sailingeric]

Maybe make a low ABV beer. Play around with Beersmith or Brewer's Friend. For a 5 gallon batch 2.5 pounds of Amber LME and some steeping grains like Crystal 80 or so will get you at 2% ABV. I cannot vouch for flavor but might be worth a try over boiling beer.

 

[vincentAlpha]

- Was my approach to adding yeast back in correct?
-- This will let you get some carbonation back after killing the yeast, some folks will mix some yeast slurry in for bottling if they've aged the beer for quite a while and think there may not be enough left in suspension.
- I stirred the beer while heating on the stovetop. It occurred to me half way through that my stirring was oxidizing the beer. Is this the bad kind of oxidation or the good kind? It's technically going through some additional fermentation in the bottle, so as I understand it that oxygen should help the yeast, but since this is a less intense fermentation, does that meant the oxygen will be left mostly sitting in the beer?
-- A little is probably not gonna hurt, it really depends on how much stirring we are talking. I'd say so long as you drink quickly you're probably gonna be fine on that count. Probably not going to be a batch to cellar though.
- I read that I should heat for 20-30 minutes. I got it up to temperature gradually (not sure if there's a point to this), and started the timer once I was above the boiling point for alcohol. After 30 minutes I still saw visible evaporation, so I went until 40 minutes. At that point I stopped even though evaporation was still visible. Does this mean alcohol was still cooking out, or was something else leaving my beer?!?
-- Despite that the fluid was not at 100C it will still have some part of the water vaporizing.
- Does 180 F sanitize my equipment? My guess is it depends on what you're sanitizing against. To be safe I boiled water in the pot before using it, but my temp probe never went above 190 since it was just in the heated low-alcohol beer.
-- Probably fine sanitation wise if you used sanitizer solution and hit those temps.

The biggest thing for me here is that you may have damaged the hop oils, causing flavour compounds and aroma compounds to evaporate out leaving you with a pretty bitter beer in the process of evaporation.

Also, unless your friend has issues with alcohol I'd suggest you try and aim for brewing low alcohol beer rather than trying to remove what is there. Probably easier to hit what you want doing that.

 

[JimRausch]

Kyle- I've neutered several partial batches of beer over the past 2 years for a friend. Used the method you described, except that after heating it to 180 on the stove I put it in the oven at that temp for 30 minutes. Never tested a batch, so can't say how well it worked, but Rick never complained. In my opinion, the flavor and aroma were not adversely affected (they were not overly hoppy batches). And yes, adding back a tsp. of yeast slurry for bottling should have been enough.

 

[kyle_cactus]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Hadn't really considered brewing low-alcohol beer from the get-go. I'll mull it over. Wouldn't that just make watered down tasting beer?

Jim - Good advice. The article I read suggested using the oven over stove top as well. Based on that I actually started planning to use the oven, but based on the rate of change on my thermometer I could tell it was going to take forever to get to temperature. I moved it to the stove-top and ended up just keeping it there. I had to constantly tend to it for the first 15 minutes after it got to temperature. I periodically tipped the pot so the base came off the burner to keep the temp from jumping higher than I wanted. Eventually I found the sweet spot on the dial and it stayer pretty even. But you're suggestion seems like a better way to go.

 

[vincentAlpha]

Low alcohol does not always translate to low flavour. You get a bit more fine grained control if you go all grain on this (not to turn this into another go all grain kinda subject). Basically you can mash in at the higher end of the range and get lots of malty flavours from different sugars but the yeast cannot break those sugars down. You may be able to replicate this effect using a partial mash or steeping grains.

You can also brew beer that is a bit more hop-forward (which will be easier since you are going to be fairly low gravity anyway) to cover up the bit thinner malt flavour profile. Either way I'd suggest doing smaller batches to pin down the process and then you won't need special equipment to have a go at all grain if your LHBS has a mill you can use (or will mill grain for you). Take a look around for 1 gallon BIAB method, requires nothing more than a trip to HD to get a mesh bag.

 

[JimRausch]

Kyle- if you do end up using the oven to maintain temp., make sure you check the beer temp. every 5 minutes or so. With my oven, I have to set it on 190 to maintain 180.