How to brew Non-Alcoholic Beer
HOW TO BREW NON ALCOHOLIC BEER
The Non-Alc Experts at ProofNoMore connected with Charles Nouwen at Peer-to-Beer www.PeerToBeer.net, to create this handy Infographic. “We wanted to illustrate the various ways NA Beer is currently made, because it’s been the number one question we receive regularly from our customers” says Christian Blake.
We found it particular interesting to look at the Prohibition period in the US where many established breweries resorted to making ‘near beer’ in order to keep some of their production going. They had no choice but to find ways to make non-alcoholic beers. And we wish we could compare them to the NA Beers available now.
In detail, the four ways to make Non Alc Beer are:
- NO FERMENTATION
Alcohol is only created in a beer when yeast is introduced to the sweet mash from boiling the Malted grains. If you omit the yeast, and simply carbonate the ‘pre-beer’, you are left with a beverage that is very much on the sweet side. It has many of the beer qualities, but due to the excessive sugar content, it’s not very much used these days.
- SHORT FERMENTATION or STOPPED FERMENTATION
When you go through the regular brewing process but stop or halt the fermentation process by lowering the temperature of the beer, you essentially render the yeast useless. This is usually done as soon as the ABV of the beer hits around 0.5%. The beer is then further diluted to be below 0.5%, usually around 0.3%. NA Beer created this way are often pasteurized to prevent re-fermentation.
- USING SPECIALTY YEAST
By researching and creating yeast strains that create NO Alcohol, the NA Brewing world was essentially turned upside down. What could only be described as an Oxymoron, Negative Yeast, or non-alc creating yeast is the hip new thing. The yeast strains that have these characteristics still create unique flavors, such as notes of bananas and cloves, but besides that only create Carbon Dioxide CO2. Using this new process still involves careful calibration of the brewing process; and requires a way that will ensure only this yeast to ‘ferment’ the beer.
- STATE OF THE ART DE-ALC EQUIPMENT
Often the best process is also the most expensive. And in this case, to Dealcoholize fully fermented beer falls into that category. However, if done correctly De-Alc beer can be the best tasting. Especially if you tweak the original beers recipe and have access to the best equipment. The latest Vacuum Distillation De-Alc machines not only remove the Alcohol from the beer but also manage to capture and re-introduce the flavor esthers that the yeast had previously created. Some of the Macro NA Beers (such as Heineken 0.0% remove the alcohol completely to yield less than 0.05%, and re-introduce natural flavors, usually in the form of an alcohol-free hop extract.
Which of the processes do you like the best? And what questions do you have? Please comment below, and we’ll get back to you with an answer!
Cheers! The Non Alc Experts at ProofNoMore & Special Thanks again to our collaborator Charles Nouwen at Peer-to-Beer
