Vacuum chamber for NA beer and other questions.

[austinb]

Hi everyone, I used to brew fairly regularly and still have all my equipment including my kegs which I use for carbonated water right now. I have just been too busy raising kids and running a business the last few years that I just have not had the time to do it in a while. I now have a more compelling reason to get back into it. I have been diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagus which is caused by chronic heartburn which can be aggravated by alcohol. My case is not real severe but I don’t want it to get worse so I have cut back significantly (but still enjoy a good craft beer once or twice a week).

Because I enjoy the flavor of beer (or something that resembles it) I have started drinking non-alcoholic. Fortunately I can get clausthauler dry hopped here which is better than the domestic options but I am limited to one beer that I can’t quite place what style it is supposed to be with it’s German beer flavors and cascade dry hopping.

So I can try other styles I am considering trying to make my own NA or very low alcohol brew but am concerned about what bringing it up to 170-180 will do to the flavor especially an IPA. I know that some commercial NA breweries reduce the boiling point of the alcohol by using a vacuum chamber. I have seen some 5 gallon vacuum chambers for about $200 on amazon that people use for essential oils and I was wondering if it would work for the purpose of NA beer? Has anyone used one for that purpose?

I also thought maybe I would make up a low gravity heavily dry hopped batch of beer to blend a small amount back in to my NA to regain some hop flavor and aroma, any thoughts on that?

My last question is that if I remove a significant amount of alcohol from my home brew should I then be concerned about pathogens, especially botulism? Should I aim for it being a certain low alcohol percentage to play it safe?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I also thought maybe I would make up a low gravity heavily dry hopped batch of beer to blend a small amount back in to my NA to regain some hop flavor and aroma, any thoughts on that?

You don't need to make beer, just make hop tea with water. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

My last question is that if I remove a significant amount of alcohol from my home brew should I then be concerned about pathogens, especially botulism? Should I aim for it being a certain low alcohol percentage to play it safe?

No. It's the acidity and lack of nutrients in beer that prevent Clostridium spp. growth.

 

[austinb]

You don't need to make beer, just make hop tea with water. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.


No. It's the acidity and lack of nutrients in beer that prevent Clostridium spp. growth.

Thanks, that answers two of my questions, now let’s see if anyone has been crazy enough to try a vacuum chamber at home for home brew NA or if I have to be the first one! Hopefully someone knows enough about the science of it to chime in even if they haven’t tried it themselves.

 

[Miller4]

I’m no help on the brewing NA and vacuum chamber. But for more NA options you could try athletic brewing company. My wife and I just received/tried their NA blonde and ipa, pretty decent for being Non alcoholic. The sucky part was it took 2 months to receive our order, but I think they were upgrading the brewery.

 

[Vale71]

If you just treat beer in a vacuum chamber you won't only be removing the alcohol but also many other volatiles. I'm afraid the resulting beer will be quite disappointing taste-wise. Vacuum removal of alcohol in an industrial setting is a very complex process aimed at recovering as much of the aroma compounds as possible while dropping the alcohol below the target value.

EDIT: Dry hopping might fix the hop aroma part though.

 

[austinb]

If you just treat beer in a vacuum chamber you won't only be removing the alcohol but also many other volatiles. I'm afraid the resulting beer will be quite disappointing taste-wise. Vacuum removal of alcohol in an industrial setting is a very complex process aimed at recovering as much of the aroma compounds as possible while dropping the alcohol below the target value.

EDIT: Dry hopping might fix the hop aroma part though.

Thanks for the info, do you think the vacuum chamber even with the lower alcohol boiling point would boil off more flavors than heating the beer to 170 without vacuum? Based off your post it sounds like at the very least this may not achieve the result of preserving flavors vs just a standard boil off that i’d like to achieve and isn’t worth the equipment cost and more complicated process? So I may be better off blending some flavors back in and create a reduced alcohol beer in the 1.5-2.5% range that hopefully has a more full flavor than just reducing the malt bill which would make watery beer?

 

[Vale71]

Unfortunately vacuum will lower the boiling point of all volatiles and not just alchohol, so you might indeed end up losing more than with boiling at 170°F. The only difference is that what's left hasn't been exposed to higher temperatures and that might make a difference in a homebrew setting where oxidation is a big issue and warming up the beer to such high temperatures will only make it much worse.
In short, maybe vacuum evaporation will give you the best results given the conditions you'll be working in, just don't expect a miracle as the end result might still be somewhat disappointing from a sensory point of view.