How to lower ABV

[Franham]

Hello all, 

New to brewing beer, was just wondering if any one had some ideas on the best way to lower ABV. Is there a special process to do this, or is it just down to the ingredients that you initially use in your wort? If so, does anyone have any suggestions for this layman or even a recipe for something equal or below 2.5 ABV?

 

Cheers

[ben 10]

Less fermentables 

 

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/zephyr-light.html

 

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/nelson-s-light.html

[ben 10]

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/aztec-gold.html

[ben 10]

what beers do you like to drink commercially?

[Franham]

I'm drinking cascade light these days. Can you explain a bit more about fermentables?

[Stickers]

9 minutes ago, Franham said:

Can you explain a bit more about fermentables?

fermentables are the 'sugars' that you're adding to the can of extract, using less of them (like half a box of brew enhancer) will lower the kick.

pretty sure the coopers english bitter extract can is mid 3% so maybe look at that too, it's pretty tasty

[Franham]

4 minutes ago, Stickers said:

fermentables are the 'sugars' that you're adding to the can of extract, using less of them (like half a box of brew enhancer) will lower the kick.

pretty sure the coopers english bitter extract can is mid 3% so maybe look at that too, it's pretty tasty

Thanks very much, I really appreciate the help. Also would using half the brew enhancer negatively affect the flavour of the beer? 

[Stickers]

7 minutes ago, Franham said:

Thanks very much, I really appreciate the help. Also would using half the brew enhancer negatively affect the flavour of the beer? 

probably.. but maybe try half a box of brew enhancer 3 - which has a lot more malt and that will give you a lot more body than standard sugar or the brew enhancer 1 + 2 cooper's boxes

[Franham]

28 minutes ago, Stickers said:

probably.. but maybe try half a box of brew enhancer 3 - which has a lot more malt and that will give you a lot more body than standard sugar or the brew enhancer 1 + 2 cooper's boxes

So say I try to zephyr light recipe, should I add half a box of beer enhancer 3, instead of the dextrose?

[jamiek86]

Add less fermentable or more water.

[Franham]

4 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

Add less fermentable or more water.

So say I have a extract can of Cooper's lager, and add half a box of one of the beer enhancers, that would allow for a lower ABV, but still create a drinkable beer?

[Pickles Jones]

14 minutes ago, Franham said:

So say I try to zephyr light recipe, should I add half a box of beer enhancer 3, instead of the dextrose?

The recipe for Zephyr Light calls for,

One can of Coopers Draught and 1 KG of Dextrose.

The Dextrose will ferment out completely to Alcohol and give you a ABV of 2.9%.

Cascade Light has an ABV  of 2.4%

I would suggest that you stick to the recipe this time and you can then reduce the amount of dextrose on your next brew to lower the ABV if you want to.

The key to lowering the ABV in this recipe is the amount of dextrose you use.

[Franham]

8 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

The recipe for Zephyr Light calls for,

One can of Coopers Draught and 1 KG of Dextrose.

The Dextrose will ferment out completely to Alcohol and give you a ABV of 2.9%.

Cascade Light has an ABV  of 2.4%

I would suggest that you stick to the recipe this time and you can then reduce the amount of dextrose on your next brew to lower the ABV if you want to.

The key to lowering the ABV in this recipe is the amount of dextrose you use.

Thanks for that. Actually on the note of cascade light, would replacing the draught extract can for lager extract can, create something more similar to cascade? So essentially I'm doing lager can + dextrose, which will create a lager with an ABV of 2.9 percent.

[Pints]

4 minutes ago, Franham said:

Thanks for that. Actually on the note of cascade light, would replacing the draught extract can for lager extract can, create something more similar to cascade? So essentially I'm doing lager can + dextrose, which will create a lager with an ABV of 2.9 percent.

I've heard the draught can is hopped with Cascade,  not sure re lager can, but I wouldn't bud 

[Franham]

3 minutes ago, PintsAtMeLocal said:

I've heard the draught can is hopped with Cascade,  not sure re lager can, but I wouldn't bud 

Nice one cheers, I'll go with that...

[Franham]

Thanks everyone for giving us a bit more confidence with my beer brewing

[Pickles Jones]

6 minutes ago, Franham said:

Thanks for that. Actually on the note of cascade light, would replacing the draught extract can for lager extract can, create something more similar to cascade? So essentially I'm doing lager can + dextrose, which will create a lager with an ABV of 2.9 percent.

No I wouldn't do that. The OS Lager recipe doesn't call for any dextrose it uses 1 Kg of BE2. I don't know what the ABV would be adding Dextrose only.

Go with the Draught.

[Franham]

2 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

No I wouldn't do that. The OS Lager recipe doesn't call for any dextrose it uses 1 Kg of BE2. I don't know what the ABV would be adding Dextrose only.

Go with the Draught.

Thank you, seems to be the concensus lol...

[Journeyman]

10 hours ago, Franham said:

Thanks for that. Actually on the note of cascade light, would replacing the draught extract can for lager extract can, create something more similar to cascade? So essentially I'm doing lager can + dextrose, which will create a lager with an ABV of 2.9 percent.

The OS lager can does not make a lager - the yeast is an ale eyast and brewing it around 18° - 20° will make an ale. You would need to buy a lager yeast and brew down around 10° - 14° which means you need temperature control. Most of us have 2nd hand fridges with a temp controller like an Inkbird (I like the ITC-308 wifi but there are others) and a heat pad or other heat source. That way the controller runs both fridge and heat and keeps the brew within a narrow range of temps.

Without that, you're going to be making ales.

[loafing_about]

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/coopers-mild-ale.html

 this is tasty and around 3.5% so maybe a bit higher but considering? 
this post has some hops recommendations too
https://community.diybeer.com/topic/11287-coopers-mild-ale-take-2/

[FrankGallagher.]

Zephyr light uses only 100gm of dextrose. It's not super clear when reading the recipe .  1 kg of dex will get you up to around 4.5%.

[Pickles Jones]

On 8/17/2021 at 8:30 PM, FrankGallagher. said:

Zephyr light uses only 100gm of dextrose. It's not super clear when reading the recipe .  1 kg of dex will get you up to around 4.5%.

The Coopers recipe calls for 1 Kg of Dextrose to give an expected ABV of 2.9% for Zephyr Light.

That is not good if you were expecting an ABV of 2.9% and end up with 4.5%.

Where/how did you find the 100gm correction.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Pickles Jones

[FrankGallagher.]

At the top of the recipe page it tells you that you need 1 kg dextrose but as you scroll down to the instructions under INGREDIENTS it lists it as 100gm.  It’s real easy to miss, I think I read the page about 5 times before I picked it up.

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 minutes ago, FrankGallagher. said:

At the top of the recipe page it tells you that you need 1 kg dextrose but as you scroll down to the instructions under INGREDIENTS it lists it as 100gm.  It’s real easy to miss, I think I read the page about 5 times before I picked it up.

A few recipes on this Coopers site do that.  Because you cannot buy 100g of Dextrose off Coopers, they say you need a 1kg box, but then say in the recipe, how much of it you need.  It is a bit misleading.

[Pickles Jones]

1 hour ago, FrankGallagher. said:

At the top of the recipe page it tells you that you need 1 kg dextrose but as you scroll down to the instructions under INGREDIENTS it lists it as 100gm.  It’s real easy to miss, I think I read the page about 5 times before I picked it up.

That is very misleading, to me anyway.

Good pick up. I will look closer in future.

There is a good chance I would have used the whole KG of dextrose.