Brewing weaker beers

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Cwrw666

Cwrw666

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This may seem like a funny topic for a homebrewer as generally we usually go for the stronger stuff. But I'm pushing 60, have had high blood pressure problems and high cholesterol as well... well anyway, I recently brewed a 2 can kit that got stuck half way but eventually went low enough to bottle, but as the final gravity was still quite high it meant it was quite weak; full of flavour but still weak in alcohol.
So it has occurred to me that although I get through quite a lot of homebrew, I'm really drinking it because i like the taste, rather than liking any intoxication. So it has occurred to me that I should be going for weaker, but full bodied beers. Also I usually make 1 can kits, one of my regulars being Tom Caxtons Dark Real Ale which to be honest if made as per kit instructions although it's ok, does tend to have the `homebrew twang'.
So here's what I'm thinking - the twang as I understand it is caused by using sugar, so if I brewed the kit without sugar and brewed it short it would have lower alcohol but more and better flavour. A quick calculation suggested that if I made it up to 3 gallons, it would have the normal alcohol level, and made up to 4 gallons without sugar it would have between 3 and 3.5% alcohol. Tom Caxtons kits also come with a hop enhancer so I could put a little less of this in so the beer wouldn't be too hoppy (though I do like quite hoppy beers).
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Foresee any problems?
 
I've been enjoying my Batemans Dark Mild clone recently so it got me thinking one of my favourite beers is Fullers London Porter so next week . I'm going to take the receipe for Fullers London Porter which is 5.5ABV% and adjust it so it comes out at 3.0ABV%. Planning on calling it Fullers London Mild :-D
 
Cwrw666 said:
So here's what I'm thinking - the twang as I understand it is caused by using sugar,
Click to expand...

A poster on another thread said that when he skimmed the krausen off the 'twang' was no longer there. If I still did kit's it's something I'd definately have a go of experimenting with

I've done cans to 20L but not 18L. Overall I reckon you'll just about get away with it. If you brew a can too short it will come out really bitter.
 
Went to my LHBS yesterday and bought a 1 can kit - Brewmakers Victorian Bitter. Made it up to 4 gallons without adding sugar and took a hydrometer reading. Assuming it'll finish at 1010 it gave an ABV of 1.9 which is a bit low to say the least! So I added a bit of sugar took another reading - still a bit low - and added a bit more sugar. Woops... so it now should give an ABV of 4%. Still, it should be quite tasty being brewed short and with proportionately less sugar than you're supposed to use. Have to be more careful next time...:lol:
 
icon_e_biggrin.gif
I thought you were supposed to be going the other way ABV% wise.

Suppose you going to have to surrender and add sugar (or DME) cuz if you short it to much more it will be too bitter to drink.

Just FYI I did some sum's for fun, using Coopers Real Ale Kit as a guide (Coopers give you the undiluted IBU of there kit's on there site) the undiluted IBU is 560IBU. The internet tells me diluting it to 23L/5G gives you 31IBU.

Plugging these figures into brewmates dilution calulator and if I did everything correctly- which theres definately no guarentee it did. Shorting it to 18L/4G gives results in an IBU of 40. I couldn't work out what the ABV% was but going by your Victorian bitter kit's 1.9ABV% I'd need to short the Coopers kit further to get about 3% ABV. So If shorted to 13L/3G the IBU comes out at 56IBU.

Now taking that most 3ish% Mild's are around 23IBU thats double the bitterness. I'm guessing it would be undrinkable.
 
Yes, I wouldn't want to go less than 4 gallons or it would be too bitter (by the way I did have a taste of my Victorian kit at 4 gallons and it was fine - but there again I do like hoppy beers).
Not sure why you would compare IBUs with a mild though - milds might be generally low in ABV but they're also quite `mild' in terms of hoppines as well. I'm thinking more on the lines of a lowish ABV IPA.
Anyway as I said in the last post I've cocked it up and will be ending up with around 4% alcohol.
 
Cwrw666 said:
Not sure why you would compare IBUs with a mild though - milds might be generally low in ABV but they're also quite `mild' in terms of hoppines as well. I'm thinking more on the lines of a lowish ABV IPA.
.
Click to expand...

Ahh, didn't quite get that a low ABV IPA was what you were aiming for. I thought you were trying to create a mild type beer as the milds I have had ( although I haven't had that many types, but I have done a lot of research into receipes) taste to me and the receipes look to me like weaker versions of either bitters or porters,and seeing as you used a bitter as the base for your experiment I thought a mild type beer was what you were aiming for.

Can I ask, if you were going for a lowish ABV IPA, why you didn't use an IPA kit as your base?
 
MyQul said:
Ahh, didn't quite get that a low ABV IPA was what you were aiming for. I thought you were trying to create a mild type beer as the milds I have had ( although I haven't had that many types, but I have done a lot of research into receipes) taste to me and the receipes look to me like weaker versions of either bitters or porters,and seeing as you used a bitter as the base for your experiment I thought a mild type beer was what you were aiming for.

Can I ask, if you were going for a lowish ABV IPA, why you didn't use an IPA kit as your base?
Click to expand...

Good question, but there again if I was trying to produce a mild why wouldn't I have started with a mild kit?
I regularly make Tom Caxtons dark real ale kit, so I was going to use that as the basis - it has an advantage in that it comes with a `hop enhancer' which I usually put all in, but if brewing short I could reduce the bitterness by putting less of it in, and I'd be able to compare it with the standard kit i know so well. But then on entering my LHBS I was tempted by the Victorian Bitter. Hey it had a nice label so what could I do?
So now I'm thinking of adding a bit more water to the brew - bringing it up to maybe 4.5 gallons, which with a rough calculation will reduce the ABV to 3.5% which is more or less what I was aiming at. At that it'll still be brewed `short' so may have better flavour than the kit made up as standard to 5 gallons and of course will be only a little more bitter than standard.

I'm not a big believer in different `types' of beer in any case. There may well be identifiable types such as IPA, bitter, mild etc, but it seems to me there's a whole spectrum of real ales out there that fall in between these classifications. So they're just marketing tags really.
 
Cwrw666 said:
Good question, but there again if I was trying to produce a mild why wouldn't I have started with a mild kit?
.
Click to expand...


Your right of course. Didn't think of that :doh::-D

If your going to dilute down from 4% you could use a dilutuion calculator like this to accurately hit your target ABV%

http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

This may be the way forward? Make the kit up to 23L as per normal with a KG of sugar or DME then dilute down to your target ABV% Then you'll get more beer for the same price:party:. This of course doesn't get around the problem you mentioned in your OP of 'home brew twang'
 
In case anyone's interested I've just bottled my Victorian Bitter. It actually tastes quite pleasant even at this stage though lacking in `kick' somewhat. Seems to have much less `twang' than a normally made up Tom Caxton's real ale. I'm guessing that because I used far less sugar, and relatively more malt (as the kit was made up to 4.5 gals instead of 5) this would account for the reasonable taste. Obviously it needs to mature for a few weeks in the bottle before I can pass final judgement. At the moment it's not even remotely too hoppy so I recon brewing even shorter will be ok.
Final ABV seems to be around 3.5% if my calculations are correct which is more or less what I was aiming at. I'll see what it's like in a couple of weeks and then decide whether to attempt a shorter & even lower alcohol brew.
 
So last night after 2 weeks in the bottle, cracked a couple just to check on it. Actually very nice. Very hoppy, about IPA levels at a guess, and with good amount, though not excessive, body. No homebrew `twang' about it at all.
The plan was to produce a low alcohol beer though with lots of flavour and good body, from a 1 can kit, and I recon I've achieved this.
Definitely be trying this one again in the future.
 
Sounds great - am also keen to brew low abv beers because it means I can drink more without getting a hangover!

If you want to keep things really simple you could always brew a wherry using the yeast provided with the kit. It's almost guaranteed to stick at 1.20 (that's what happened to me anyway), giving you a suitably low abv beer! ;-)
 

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