Just wondering if we can brew one of those “Near beer” or “Almost Beer” concoctions like they sell in stores? But something decent!
Ridiculous price for canned water! That stuff almost smells like a beer for a couple seconds when can is first popped, and first sip may have just a tad of flavor but not much, and then it is just canned water!
So has anyone tried to brew a no alcohol beer that turned out like a real beer with good flavor and such? Of course I am sure something like that would have to be force carbonated.
There are times I’d like a good cold beer or a few but do not want to drink any. Like working in the yard on a hot day but know I’ll have to drive to town soon. I don’t drink soda’s or energy drinks, so that leaves plain old water to drink which is ok.
I drink allot of water anyway, but sometimes it’s just not what I want.
I do not think NA beer can be made at home. You would want to ferment a beer as normal but then remove all the alcohol using vacuum distillation. Anyone have a vacuum distiller handy? No? I thought not. You could just make wort and not ferment it but this tastes way too thick and sweet and there are dangers like botulism if not consumed fast enough, not to mention sourness and bottle bombs from wild fermentation! No, I really do not think Na beer is something that a homebrewer can successfully hope to achieve… sorry.
There’s an article in Brew Your Own magazine in 1995 about a method for making low alcohol homebrew. I have NO idea if it would actually work, but it seemed like it could be worth a try since you could try it with a small amount of beer. Sort of amounts to pasteurizing the beer. I couldn’t get the link to work, but I just googled “non alcoholic homebrew beer” and found the article.
[quote=“Frenchie”]There’s an article in Brew Your Own magazine in 1995 about a method for making low alcohol homebrew. I have NO idea if it would actually work, but it seemed like it could be worth a try since you could try it with a small amount of beer. Sort of amounts to pasteurizing the beer. I couldn’t get the link to work, but I just googled “non alcoholic homebrew beer” and found the article.
Cheers,
Ron[/quote]
It leaves alcohol behind and the resulting beer tastes like crap.
This past Fall I neutered parts of 5 batches for a friend that doesn’t choose to drink alcohol anymore, but loves beer. If you are on HBT forum, check out the ‘How I neutered my beer’ thread.
My batches were a Porter, a Scottish ale, an Altbier, a Graf, and a Vienna lager. So, notice nothing that is very hoppy. You do tend to lose the hop flavor and aroma, although bitterness remains.
Basically you ferment your beer to completion as normal, and at bottling time you heat the beer to 170 and hold it there for 30 minutes. Alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, so you are boiling off the alcohol. Then you cool it, add yeast and bottle. I did send in a test kit from White Labs for the 1st batch, but that is expensive, so I didn’t bother for the other batches.
Keep in mind, you won’t be able to get to 0% ABV, but ‘No Alcohol’ commercial beers are not 0% either.
You should be able to get down to 0.5-1%. The flavor of my batches were pretty darn close to identical to my high test versions. I call it a success, and they made a great Christmas gift.
you might want to look into kinderbier. I’ve never had it, but it must be cool 'cause Three FLoyds makes one - it’s a helluva kinderbier though at 10% abv. Still flavorful low alcohol beer is doable. Tasty NA beer though is not possible for a homebrewer IMHO.
I did find this link and it looks interesting: http://byo.com/english-bitter-pale-ale/item/1453-tastes-great-less-alcohol
I’ve heard of people removing most of the alcohol from their beer by heating it a bit past ethanol’s vapor point in an oven. I’d only recommend this in an electric oven, as alcohol vapors and fire aren’t a good mix.
