May have over shot a low ABV

[wortchillergoal]

A cou8ple of hockey friends are always after me for a very low alcohol beer with flavor. I think I may have gone too far.

I just bottled a beer that is only about 2.73%. I knew my malt load was low but guess I was felling a little optimistic that brew day. I did dry hop it with Saaz and it tasted ok but may tend to the thin side. It will be interesting to see what they think.

[toneyc]

If they like it... hell, even if they don't, I'd like to see that recipe. I've kinda been wanting a nice tasting low alcohol beer that I can drink daily without getting thrashed. I like beer, I don't like hangovers.

:)
Toney.

[darylM]

I been thinking the same thing, TC. That's why I am trying a mild for my next beer.

[wortchillergoal]

The people who tired this beer at the party we had seemed to enjoy it very much. I got a couple opf people who brought and were drinking lite beer from a couple of brewers to try mine. They said they would rather haver mine and did indeed drink it. One person said it was ok but to strong. In questioning him, I believe the hop profile was to much for him.

Here is my recipe.

3.25# of light DME
steeped 1/4# of crystal malt to 165 degrees
1oz of Cascade for 60 minutes.
1/2oz of Sazz at 30 minutes.
!/4oz of sazz at flame out
Wyeast american ale
1/4oz sazz dry hopped in secondary.

primed with DME at bottling

[BrewDog]

Good job, Wort!

How many IBU's was that? (I guess about 25?) That's nearly a 1:1 BU:GU.
I guess I'm not surprised it bothered him a little. I'd try to get it down to 17 and see how they like that.

[nelstrodomus]

Here's a recipe of my Session Ale (it's basically a mild ale, around 4%)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.30 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 23.1 %
8.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 55.9 %
1.00 lb Caraaroma (130.0 SRM) Grain 7.0 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 7.0 %
1.00 lb Mild Malt (4.0 SRM) Grain 7.0 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (45 min) Hops 9.8 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50%] (10 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
1.00 oz Liberty [4.30%] (10 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs British Ale (Wyeast Labs #1098) Yeast-Ale

NOTE THIS IS FOR 10 GAL

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.4 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.0 %
Bitterness: 16.7 IBU Calories: 200 cal/pint
Est Color: 15.4 SRM Color: Color



I would highly recommend adding at least some more bittering hops, it lacks any real hop profile (doubling would be perfect I think)


Good luck, and let me know how it turns out

[BrewDog]

That looks like a nice easy drinking recipe.

Two questions for ya - nothing wrong with the recipe, just asking, that's all

1) Why are you using Amber extract for the base? You can really tune in your malt profile if you sub out the Amber for pale/light and then add in some medium Crystal malt - like 40L or 60L.(which you are already using). A lot of times, it is tough to use somebody's recipe if it calls for Dark or Amber extract, cause every brand has different composition. That kind of ties you to 1 manufacturer.

2) What is mild malt? That's one I never heard of. Can you point me to a description of it somewhere?

I'd bet a small dose (2 oz) of Chocolate would be really nice in
this.

[nelstrodomus]

Yeah I'm relatively new to making my own recipes compared to buying kits and tweaking them (adding lots more hops), so i agree that you can switch out the amber for a pale/light or even ultralight and probably get better results. the chocolate sounds interesting too :)

[wortchillergoal]

I was at Clark's Ale House tonight. I had dropped a couple of my Irish Cream Porters and this low ABV beer to a friend/bartender there. He had out them in their reach cooler. One of the other bartenders drank all the low ABV beer.

Tonight while I was there, he remarked that he had drank my light pale ales. He went on to say that he had tried other's attempt at this but did not like them. He told me that mine tasted as good as some of the beers that they had on tap. Not trying to brag but I love hearing things like this comment. Now I have to go pop open a bottle.

I guess I should add that he is not one of the most beer knowledgable staff members but I still did enjoy hearing his comments.