Non Alcoholic Beer, I know I know

[MormonDude]

Just a quick question on NA Homebrews or what kind of good commercial NA beers are there. I use to drink a little before I was a member of the LDS Faith and I homebrewed for a little bit in Killen Texas. I brewed only about 4 batches before I quit drinking so I was definitely no expert. Though my Red Raspberry Ale turned out quite good, my 2nd batch.

Anyways I was watching the history of Brewing on the History Channel and it got me thinking. How is NA beer made. So I did some research and found out it is a "relatively" simple process. But most NA beers sound like they are pretty nasty. Well I have tried O'Douls and it was decent. I hear St. Paulis Girl is ok. I wondered if there were any good NA beer recipes or any good commercial NA beer's available. I know commercially it isn't as economically feasible brewing NA beer, as it seems like most of the companies out there that do it only have 1 or 2 kinds. I really want some good NA Hefe, a Bock, medium to very hoppy and something full bodied with a lot of flavor. Is this possible to achieve these results with Homebrew? If anyone has any tips, recipes or any help at all I would appreciate it.

I really don't miss drinking, I am fine if I never drink another beer again, but it is fun to brew your own and drink it and know it is your own masterpiece. I would like to start brewing again but leave out the alchy in the beer. At least I never have hangovers anymore :). Anyways thank you for your time and any help or tips is appreciated. Take care and God Bless.

Kyle

[DecoJuicer]

Kyle,

There have been a few threads about this before. If you do a search, you can get much more info than I can provide. That being said...

From what I have heard, there are 2 basic ways to make a beer LOW ALCOHOL. As far as I know, you can not remove all of the alcohol from it. Even commercial breweries don't remove all of the alcohol, just most of it.

The first, and probably easiest, way is to brew your beer, let it ferment out, then put it in the oven at about 185 degrees. I beleive that is the temp that alcohol evaporates. After you have done that, you would probably want to dry hop it for a few days, because the process also evaporates the hop flavor.

The other process is by freezing your brew. The alcohol freezes at a much lower temps than the rest of the beer. Give the brew a few days to freeze well, then drain off the remaining liquid. After that, dry hop it for a few days and carbonate it.

For both of these ways, you would probably be better off kegging and force carbonating, than trying to carbonate in the bottle. If you keg, you can just tie a hop bag top the dip tube and dry hop while you are drinking.

Enjoy.

[MormonDude]

I appreciate the help. Yeah it sounds like Kegging it would be best, the only thing is the Keg would last FOREVER as I wouldn't drink it that much. But it definitely does sound like the best way. I have read a few things on here but there isn't a whole lot if there are better recipes than others. I guess you can just use any recipe. Anyways thanks again for the help. Take care.

Kyle

[DecoJuicer]

You might be surpised at how quickly a 5 gallon keg would be gone. Once your friends find out that you are serving a tasty low alcohol beer, they may come over to help you with your chores just to get a taste.

[BrewDog]

I'm not convinced the freezing idea will work very well. Most of the ice crystals will be just that, ice. Remember, the way that they make eisbier in Germany (to strengthen it) is to freeze part of it, then remove the ice crystals, which are pretty much only made up of pure water ice. (Technically, this technique is distillation, and not legal in the US, so don't try it at home, kiddies.) Trying to pour off the unfrozen part, keeping the ice, will also remove most of the flavor and body compounds from the beer in addition to the alcohol. Leaving just the right amount unfrozen and decanta-able seems a tough challenge. We've probably all had a can of beer freeze in the freezer before when trying to force chill it. I can't possibly guess exactly how long it takes to get the beer 95% frozen so that the remaining 5% is just the alcohol. I don't think it is possible to be that precise.

Heating up to 185+ then dry hopping and force carbonating sounds to me like it will work much better.

[dparsons]

The freezing process is more difficult, but heat affects the flavor more.

[zoom6zoom]

The freezing process is considered distilling by ATF and in their eyes, illegal. Never mind the fact that you are trying to remove the alcohol, not strengthen it.

[D0nc0smic]

well i guess that kinda depends on where exactly you remove the alchohol to, like into your mouth:D