just kit, yeast and hops, any good?

[worry wort]

I remember reading somewhere on the forum a while back about not adding any brewing sugar/dextrose/malt to the kit for the primary fermentation, just the disolved kit content, yeast and hops. I love my HB and due to medical necessity I have to greatly reduce alcohol intake, so was thinking if this was turning out beer at a very low ABV then I could still enjoy my drop without causing too many internal issues. 

Anyone tried this? I can't see too many probs and from memory of what I read it was about 2% or just under. Keen to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

WW

[Graculus]

I had a look at this a while ago for a mate so I have some bookmarks.

Careful with this one. They say buy a kilo of dextrose, but only use 100 grams.

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

 

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

 

https://community.diybeer.com/topic/15939-non-alcaholic-beer/?tab=comments#comment-247077

https://community.diybeer.com/topic/16159-how-to-lower-abv/

[Shamus O'Sean]

4 hours ago, worry wort said:

I remember reading somewhere on the forum a while back about not adding any brewing sugar/dextrose/malt to the kit for the primary fermentation, just the disolved kit content, yeast and hops. I love my HB and due to medical necessity I have to greatly reduce alcohol intake, so was thinking if this was turning out beer at a very low ABV then I could still enjoy my drop without causing too many internal issues. 

Anyone tried this? I can't see too many probs and from memory of what I read it was about 2% or just under. Keen to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

WW

I have not tried it.  One thing to consider is the bitterness of whatever kit you use.  Because you would not be adding extra fermentables to balance the bitterness, you might perceive a kit only brew as more bitter.  

@Graculus's links also give you some good ideas.

I would start with one of the lower bitterness kits (Australian Pale Ale, European Lager, Mexican Cerveza) and work your way up from there.  Interested to see how it works out.  Might even try it myself at some time.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Shamus O'Sean

[Graculus]

Looking back through my notes, I had a go at making a lowish alcohol beer for one of my mates.

Coopers APA
200 grams lme
 New packet 05 yeast
25 Grams Galaxy
25 Grams Cascade

50 grams of hops was probably too much, but it was an experiment and I didn't want to end up with anything too bland.
At least if it was too hoppy, I could have let it sit for six months for the hops to fade.

Started off at 1026 & finished at 1004.
Finished at 2.89% Alcohol. So, just under 3% once I'd primed it.

Tasted OK. We drank it.

Just reading one of those threads I linked to where I posted. I was surprised it finished at 1004.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Graculus

[Malter White]

@worry wort I remember making 23 lt Coopers English Bitter with just 500g LDM. I think it came in at about 3.5% ABV. It was a truly full flavoured beer. As you probably already know LDM doesn't fully ferment into alcohol like dextrose, so perhaps a smaller does of LDM (200g?) might be the go for you to achieve lower ABV without sacrificing quality.

[thebeerpig]

Hi Worry Wort. Now that I’m in my mid sixties I’m not able to tolerate hangovers or drinking injuries like I could when I was younger so I’ve taken to making light beers. I just put the dissolved kit can in the fermenter, add yeast and let it rip.

Going by what I’ve read on the forum and the instructions that used to come with the Coopers kits many years ago, when the light beer is bottled using sugar to gas the bottles up the alcohol content will be around 2.5%. The percentage I think is around 0.5% less if the beer is gassed using Co2 and stored in a keg.

I’ve made a lot of the various kit flavours this way over time, have pigged out on a lot of them, and found them all easy drinking and generally hangover and falling over free

[Cheap Charlie]

18 minutes ago, thebeerpig said:

Hi Worry Wort. Now that I’m in my mid sixties I’m not able to tolerate hangovers or drinking injuries like I could when I was younger so I’ve taken to making light beers. I just put the dissolved kit can in the fermenter, add yeast and let it rip.

Going by what I’ve read on the forum and the instructions that used to come with the Coopers kits many years ago, when the light beer is bottled using sugar to gas the bottles up the alcohol content will be around 2.5%. The percentage I think is around 0.5% less if the beer is gassed using Co2 and stored in a keg.

I’ve made a lot of the various kit flavours this way over time, have pigged out on a lot of them, and found them all easy drinking and generally hangover and falling over free

I'm guessing the avatar pic is of you in your younger days?

[thebeerpig]

1 hour ago, Cheap Charlie said:

I'm guessing the avatar pic is of you in your younger days?

Yep that’s a pic of me on my bucks night back in 1982. When I married my beautiful wife the next day we gave each other the cute nicknames of me, Thebeerpig and her, Missbeerpiggy. Forty years later on and we are still together and as happy as pigs in poo can be. We are hoping now that our love for each other will make it on through our ups and downs and we will get to pig out big time out at our Silver wedding anniversary in 2032

[Cheap Charlie]

34 minutes ago, thebeerpig said:

Yep that’s a pic of me on my bucks night back in 1982. When I married my beautiful wife the next day we gave each other the cute nicknames of me, Thebeerpig and her, Missbeerpiggy. Forty years later on and we are still together and as happy as pigs in poo can be. We are hoping now that our love for each other will make it on through our ups and downs and we will get to pig out big time out at our Silver wedding anniversary in 2032

I'm sure it will mate, for many years after that

[worry wort]

On 12/17/2022 at 1:02 PM, Graculus said:

Looking back through my notes, I had a go at making a lowish alcohol beer for one of my mates.

Coopers APA
200 grams lme
 New packet 05 yeast
25 Grams Galaxy
25 Grams Cascade

50 grams of hops was probably too much, but it was an experiment and I didn't want to end up with anything too bland.
At least if it was too hoppy, I could have let it sit for six months for the hops to fade.

Started off at 1026 & finished at 1004.
Finished at 2.89% Alcohol. So, just under 3% once I'd primed it.

Tasted OK. We drank it.

Just reading one of those threads I linked to where I posted. I was surprised it finished at 1004.

I've just had a cancerous kidney ripped out and one of the new-life orders are to reduce alcohol intake. At least it wasn't 'no more alcohol'. Now, I've been brewing for many years and really love my HB, hence the search for a doable, low alcohol alternative. I've only been running between 3.2-3.8% for the past 5 or so years, more for enjoyment than effect, but if I can get it down another 1%, that would work well. As luck would have it I got a can of APA for chrissy, so going to give your recipe a whirl and see how it goes. Will post the results up when completed, thanks for your time.

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

17 minutes ago, worry wort said:

I've just had a cancerous kidney ripped out and one of the new-life orders are to reduce alcohol intake. At least it wasn't 'no more alcohol'. Now, I've been brewing for many years and really love my HB, hence the search for a doable, low alcohol alternative. I've only been running between 3.2-3.8% for the past 5 or so years, more for enjoyment than effect, but if I can get it down another 1%, that would work well. As luck would have it I got a can of APA for chrissy, so going to give your recipe a whirl and see how it goes. Will post the results up when completed, thanks for your time.

 

@worry wort All the best for your recovery & hope that you are still able to enjoy a few beers, it is better to be able to have LA beers than none at all.

[Graculus]

Good Luck with it.

I used a 05 yeast as it never seemed to go below 1.010. I was surprised it went that low.

Coopers yeast always seems to rip through the fermentation and finishes lower in my experience, hence the change to 05.

I gave a case of that brew to mate a month or so before Christmas. I hope to catch up with him this weekend, so I'll ask what he thought of it.

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, worry wort said:

I've just had a cancerous kidney ripped out and one of the new-life orders are to reduce alcohol intake. At least it wasn't 'no more alcohol'. Now, I've been brewing for many years and really love my HB, hence the search for a doable, low alcohol alternative. I've only been running between 3.2-3.8% for the past 5 or so years, more for enjoyment than effect, but if I can get it down another 1%, that would work well. As luck would have it I got a can of APA for chrissy, so going to give your recipe a whirl and see how it goes. Will post the results up when completed, thanks for your time.

 

All the best for your recovery, mate.  Good to hear you can still have the occasional ale.  Some of the English Ale yeasts finish a few points high too.  They might help keep the ABV down.  But I am no doctor.  The residual sugars might still be an issue.