Decreasing ABV of an AG recipe

DoctorMick · Apr 20, 2015

I really need to brew a session Pale Ale as everything I have is on the strong side and I ended up quite drunk by the time I finished my last brew day! :drunk:

Anyway, all the recipes in the book I have are for 5%+ beers so I was going to tweak one to reduce the strength. I know I need to reduce the quantity of the base grain but my questions are:

- Do I need to decrease the other grains by the same %age or should they remain the same?
- Do I need to reduce the hop additions to cater for the reduced grain bill?

Alternatively, if someone wants to give me a recipe for a hoppy pale ale which is about 3.5% I'd be very appreciative. :lol:

Covrich · Apr 20, 2015

Coulnd't you mash at a slightly higher temp leaving less fermentable sugars? and perhaps do not pick a yeast which is as high attenuating?

Other than that I would say if you're going to reduce your grain bill yes I would guess prortionatley you shoudl adjust the others as you do not want the specialty grains say to be overpowering. For that you could put the recipe into a brewmate type software note down the IBUs and %s and adjust it to suit with a reduced grain bill..

rodwha · Apr 20, 2015

You'll certainly want to reduce it all proportionately or close to it.

clibit · Apr 20, 2015

I would just reduce the pale malt. I do it regularly. Leave the other grains alone. There's an argument for reducing the hops a bit, but I doubt you'd notice and I don't bother.

Just cut the base malt!

MyQul · Apr 20, 2015

Or you can just make up the receipe as is and dilute the wort with water a bit more to give you more beer :drink: . I use a dilution calculator to dilute concentrated wort to my target OG:

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

DoctorMick · Apr 20, 2015

MyQul said:
Or you can just make up the receipe as is and dilute the wort with water a bit more to give you more beer :drink: . I use a dilution calculator to dilute concentrated wort to my target OG:

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

You sir are a genius, that's a splendid idea! It's mean I'd need to use my bottling bucket to ferment as my fv isn't big enough but that's not a bit deal.

Do you need to boil the extra water or are you brave enough to use it straight from the tap?

MyQul · Apr 20, 2015

I just filter it (with a brita filta) and just pour it straight in as that's what I used to do when I made kits and didn't have a problem doing it then.
You can even freeze it and use the ice to help cool your wort down which Is what I used to do before I started to no chill in the fermenter. Although I did used to boil it for 15 mins before freezing, not sure why as whenever I just use water from the tap I don't - think I read somewhere to do it

clibit · Apr 20, 2015

If you dilute, you dilute everything - hops and flavour grains. Take that into account, unless you are just diluting a little. I have found that leaving everything the same except for reducing the base malt works well, The same beer, lower ABV.

stevej · Apr 20, 2015

Sorry but +1 with Clibit that is just going to dilute everything surely its easier just to reduce the pale malt ?
Steve

MyQul · Apr 20, 2015

clibit said:
If you dilute, you dilute everything - hops and flavour grains. Take that into account, unless you are just diluting a little. I have found that leaving everything the same except for reducing the base malt works well, The same beer, lower ABV.

As your probably aware I make a concentrated wort then dilute. I do add a bit more hops for lower hop utilization but this is because of a concentated boil rather than dilution. Is there that much of a difference between diluting a concentrated wort and diluting down a recipe?

clibit · Apr 20, 2015

If you make a concentrated wort you use enough flavour grains and hops for the final amount. Not the case with diluting. But diluting is ok I'm sure as long as you keep it restrained.

MyQul · Apr 20, 2015

I'm actually with the rest of you guys it's far easier to add less grain, I just added the suggestion of dilution as an alternative. But I think the easiest/best solution would be to find/create a low ABV% hoppy pale ale recipe as this would mean he meets all his requirements without unbalacing an existing recipe/compromising

clibit · Apr 20, 2015

MyQul said:
I'm actually with the rest of you guys it's far easier to add less grain, I just added the suggestion of dilution as an alternative. But I think the easiest/best solution would be to find/create a low ABV% hoppy pale ale recipe as this would mean he meets all his requirements without unbalacing an existing recipe/compromising

I agree with that. And I wouldn't massively reduce the srtength of the beer. The balance of flavours has been designed with the alcohol level in mind, quite probably

DoctorMick · Apr 20, 2015

The recipe I'll be "watering down" is a big hoppy American IPA so it'll handle being diluted by a few litres without issue I reckon, will calculate how much extra water I'll be adding before hand tho and if it seems excessive I'll replan.

DoctorMick · Apr 20, 2015

clibit said:
I agree with that. And I wouldn't massively reduce the srtength of the beer. The balance of flavours has been designed with the alcohol level in mind, quite probably

Good point which makes me think it might be a bad idea to try and change a 6% recipe to a 3.5% recipe?

MyQul · Apr 20, 2015

DoctorMick said:
Good point which makes me think it might be a bad idea to try and change a 6% recipe to a 3.5% recipe?

What's the IBU on the receipe?

clibit · Apr 20, 2015

If you post a recipe we can have a look at it.

DoctorMick · Apr 21, 2015

Cheers, will put it up tonight.

Cwrw666 · Apr 21, 2015

Not been doing AG (BIAB) very long and the recipes I've been using are all about 5% which I find a bit much really, so the last Northern Brown I put on I just reduced the pale malt content & it's going to come out at about 4% which is more like I want. Seems to me if you just water down the brew you're also diluting colour and flavour, whereas if you just reduce the pale malt content you reduce alcohol but all the other flavours and body remain the same pretty much. I'll know better in a week or so when it's time for bottling.
When brewing kits for a weaker product I found it much better to brew short and adjust the ABV by reducing sugar additions. Although weaker, the beer came out much better, with more body and flavour than the same kit made to the instructions.

rodwha · Apr 21, 2015

If it is a west coast style American IPA then you'd also need to reduce the crystal malts as they are not supposed to be malty, but hoppy. It's not unlike some of the British pale beers where specialty grains are used quite sparingly and only to add color without much flavor contribution. If it's a standard American IPA it wouldn't be quite as critical, but hop flavor is still supposed to be the star.

Decreasing ABV of an AG recipe

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