How to Brew NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER AT HOME (It's Easier Than You Think)

[@1985tomak]

Due to a neck injury; I’ve been dry since July. Miss brewing so, so much; more so since my father passed away a few months ago (was a master brewer at a local brewery here in CT). This gave me some hope!! Thank you!!

[@erniewjr]

I have had good luck with a cold mash NA Belgian. I have brewed three times and get a 30% efficiency. OG 1.005, FG 1.001. I mash in my temp controlled freezer with 3 gallons of water at 45F. An important part of the process after removing the grain is to rack off the mash sediment in the bottom of the mash into the boil kettle. Then I top off my boil to the proper volume to get 5 gallons of beer. I just did a hot mash at 176F and had sulfur smells because of the arrested fermentation.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cold steep is next, it seems many people prefer that method so hopefully that works out better!

[@ElementaryBrewingCo]

Looks pretty good for NA!!! Surprising it doesn’t taste more sour at 3.8! NA brewing definitely has its differences from regular brewing, much harder to pull off. Cheers Steve 🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Likewise! Its a fun challenge to adapt beer styles to NA brewing

[@seriomarkj]

Got a buddy who recently went sober, couldnt be more proud of him, but miss sharing a beer with him...been def thinking about na beer so we can sit back and watch a game together with a brew, so thanks for posting this...cheers

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its great for that purpose! Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@ryanponto3276]

Thank you for your adventurous spirit and sharing your homebrew journey! Your channel is a constant source of inspiration.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you enjoyed it so much!

[@HOMEBREW4LIFE]

Great video braj!

Thanks for the video, it is a long-planned project to have something nonalcoholic constantly on tap. There were two attempts, one was a party-gyle second running, and got something watery with about 1%. The second attempt was just a hopwater sweetened with orange syrup, added acidity with citric acid, and some vitamin C. Needed something unalcoholic for a party and that was the only thing I came up with in a hurry, it was a huge hit.

[@matthewboland5598]

Love me some hop water! Maybe that will be his next video. I have had good luck adding a quart of organic limeade in my hop water and it really adds something. Have you tried adding some sugar and letting it ferment? It adds some nice character.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Very nice!

[@sierrabrew7759]

Yep, Dry January, I'm right there with you... I'm still brewing, just not indulging at the moment.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Brewing never stops!

[@sierrabrew7759]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Lol Preach on Brutha! That is Truth!!

[@jeradtrannum841]

Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it. Even if not as popular as full alcohol brews. Very interested in brewing N/A beer and this was a great introduction. The family will appreciate a bit more N/A in the house. Cheers

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you found it so useful!

[@tommanning7337]

My friend that quit drinking actually asked me about doing this. Very cool!! 😎👍🏻👍🏻🍺

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It's great for folks like that!

[@matthewboland5598]

Thx for this video. Lots of good tips. I have been experimenting with NA home brews almost as long as I have been home brewing. Typically what I do is to do an NA batch of most brews I make. I will basically just do a hot sparge of my original grains and that will get me a “weak wort”. Most of these have come out at 1% to 1.5%. Good enough for home brewing. My next experiment will be using DME & some adjuncts and fermenting in the keg. Hopefully that will give me a really fast turnaround from brewing to serving.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yup - the partigyle method! That is another great way to get an NA beer with good flavor.

[@TheBruSho]

So cool! I have been wanting to do this since HBC and you definitely got me inspired to try it out

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It wasn't too hard to pull off after listening to that presentation again, and I was still pleasantly surprised at the outcome!

[@Erik_Swiger]

30 years ago, I played around with beers, aiming for 2.5% alcohol, including "mild" and a root beer recipes. This video has helped me a lot with the influences that affect the alcohol content of the beer.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad it was so helpful!

[@RegicideBrewing]

Great video Steve! I've never done a NA beer but this video makes it seem like it is really doable. Thanks for sharing!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

It's definitely doable with good flavor! I want to explore a few other methods though

[@camilleburger8984]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I guess it is going to be an uphill road to get to the perfect one. Looking forward to more development in this tricky field.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its certainly challenging to find the perfect NA beer brewing method, seems like there is always a tradeoff, but the experimentation will still continue!

[@williamthompson9508]

Thanks for making this video! Was just thinking about trying out a NA beer for fun.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its definitely a fun challenge!

[@jamesbedford1136]

Hey thanks for doing this video, I’m looking at starting a non alcoholic nano brewery with a friend. Very helpful

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Best of luck! It's a good market to get into right now!

[@sohrabsaniee464]

Hi Do you run your brewery? I love to have one too. Tell some experiances🍻

[@lanesmyname]

I haven't tried brewing one yet, but one tip I read from Ultralow Brewing is to add a bit of glycerin to help with body, if you're concerned about having a watery beer. Maybe add some lactose to help bump up the FG too.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Great suggestions!

[@AOAZPGuitarist]

I used the cold steep method for a NA hells lager I made. Fermentation mirrored yours, those sugar chains are just soo long it takes time to chew through them for sure. I had to make sure it was .5% since it was made for my mom who is now sober. I hated every drop of that beer and to my credit, I tried commercial lager examples and hated them all too. All I can describe it was is Doughy with a hint of beer taste. The cold steep method can give you a bunch of gunk at the bottom if you don't recirculate it. I did an overnight steep then an hour recalculation to get rid of that gunk. I have decided to just stick to hop water as NA beers just seem like I'm pretending lol! Cheers and excited to see how your cold steep NA beer turns out.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

We will see how the cold steep method works vs the hot mash but I definitely am not a huge fan of the doughy flavor either, hopefully that doesn't happen!

[@GentleGiantFan]

You know how I do dry January? US-05, S-04, W34/70.... In all seriousness, good episode. I've always wondered what made NA brew 'na'.

[@DavidLuger]

Tropical NEIPA's make a good low alcohol (1%) brew. I recommend steeping dark grains separately at lower regular temps to avoid tea bag levels of astringency. Glycerin can add mouth feel. NA Homebrewer page has lots of recipes. Lactic acid works for lowering pH and 4.6 has worked fine. After brewing L.A. for 2 years without problems the importance of low pH finally became known to me.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Great recommendations!

[@rhpsoregon]

I'll be tackling a NA Mexican Lager in about 2 weeks, so you released this at just the right time. If you want a little more spiciness, try switching the Saazer for Tettnanger. Also, try FWH'ing as soon as you lift the basket. With only 30 minutes, your not going to get full isomerization, but will still get that spicy Tett character coming through. Oven-toasting your pilsner malt might also take away some of that doughiness and give the beer some toasty character. With all the yeast you put in, I think it should have reached FG within 24 hrs. Maybe the yeast was a little oxygen or nutrient-starved. But what do I know? You've got more experience brewing NA beer than me. I'm definitely making this one after my Mexican Lager. Sláinte.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

These are great suggestions - I don't use Tettnang enough! I took gravity readings daily and the yeast still took its time - a big player in that is the low pH of the wort. Best of luck with the NA Mexican lager!

[@jmhern]

First want to say awesome job on this video! Glad to see that NA at the homebrew level is very much possible. I wanted to also chime in and say that I recommend the Best Day NA West Coast IPA and Kolsch brews. They are some of the few NA brews I've tried and have been extremely surprised with due to their lack of that wort taste.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you enjoyed the video and thank you for the recommendations!

[@RuckinBrit]

Happy New Year - thanks for the video. Will try this. Thanks!!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Happy new year!

[@FlippinDonkNutz]

Belgian Double wit! I would love to see your take on the style, sir.

[@brendonmonks6663]

Hey mate. I tried to make an N/A beer a while back and it was not very good. Used the same technique as you did in this video with the high temp mash, came out at 0.6% a bit above target but still low. It had this very strong metallic taste and was super bitter. I'm thinking maybe i used too many hops in the beer, as you said with the small grain bill you dont need as many hops. Might give it another try cheers 🍻

[@tubemetubeyou]

Nice brew. I have a lot of NA and LA brews under my belt. I would suggest not to arrest fermentation. Let the yeast finish out. 1.008 is pretty normal for a regular yeast. If you let it finish you probably would not have to deal with sulfur or Diacetyl. If doing a high temp mash mine finish 1.018-1.022, but using maltose negative yeast like Lallamond London or ESB. And yes put lots of specialty malts. They impact the most flavor. I’d love to hear about your next back of NA or LA. On a side note, I have found LA beer (1-1.5%) can taste way better than NA.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you for the feedback! I ended up doing a cold-mashed NA stout shortly after (has yet to get uploaded) that was significantly better than this beer, maybe that was the cold mash technique, maybe the specialty malts? Either way I am far happier with its flavor.

[@jackferriter2533]

My initial thought on having zero yeast character shine through would be to add small amounts of the descriptors (e.g. clove, peppercorn, etc.), however, I don't know how well it would play with fermentation or where the addition would go

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Unfortunately thats not always a one-to-one effect when adding them to the beer, and with the lack of alcohol I'm not sure they would all come across the same way as in a 5% beer. Who knows?

[@Tomtiburon]

You can add some carabelge from weyermann... and for other beer style, you can choose the ludwigii yeast😊

[@Rubberduck-tx2bh]

Good luck to all of us doing dry January. Halfway there as of this vid's posting date!!!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Yup! Not much longer now!

[@tim-tim-timmy6571]

Thanks for sharing! I was thinking of trying something like that one day. My favourit non alcoholic beer is actually a berliner weiss (Mikeller made it). The sourness and the hint of funk has a central role and doesn't make it taste like hop water or anything worty. I think you can still get the belgian character for this beer if you would add some cloves and maybe ferment hotter than you would usually do. Cheers

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

The berliner weisse recommendation makes sense!

[@NoMusiciansInMusicAnymore]

This is a really interesting process, I am not really into NA beer personally... it seems like a broken pencil but I would be interested in watching more to understand more, I would really like to see the cold mash version in particular. I have a few people in mind on my end that would love me to do NA beer from time to time!

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Its a fun challenge for sure, and there's plenty of people that enjoy good NA beer so it is certainly worth doing. Cheers!

[@pv4669]

Steve, I would buy some T-shirts, but I only wear shirts that have graphics on the back. IMO graphics on the front look a bit dorky (no offense), a small logo on the front upper left pocket area is cool, but I'll wait until something is on the back. Thanks for the video, keep up the good work.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll go make some!

[@cidmontenegro8225]

When you say 'worty' flavor, is part of that being sweet? I've only had maybe 3 or 4 different NA beers, but they were all to sweet for me. It sounded like that wasn't the case in your finished product, so 'bravo'. Also, now that you have one under your belt, are there any other styles you think might be a better choice for a NA beer? The first style that came to mind was a stout, you can keep the grain bill low and still pile in strong flavors and body. You don't have to worry about yeast character, and some folks say guinness has a slight sourness that may play into the low pH.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Sort of, but its mostly a flavor that tastes exactly like unfermented or partially fermented wort. Its a chemical called methianol which has a very low flavor threshold. I think the next one will be a stout for exactly those reasons you mentioned, so we will see how it goes!

[@dt2243]

Cool experiment. Maybe... maybe beer is just meant to be alcoholic. Hop water is good for dry january though. Good video can't wait for the English beer videos

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Sure its an oxymoron but its a fun challenge.

[@bigdavylove]

You mentioned you used a calculation to derive the 0.5% ABV. Which calculation did you use? The standard (OG - FG) * 131.25 made it 0.65% in my books.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

When I do the manual calculation that is also what I get. Maybe the Anton Paar SmartRef I use for all my measurements has issues with low ABV?

[@achowe9313]

What about using some melanoidin malt to boost the maltiness? Also, perhaps adding in some sort of fruity peppercorn to mimic the yeast character?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Maybe? But I would be worried about the wort-iness factor. Peppercorn is a very good idea!

[@scottlonghurst383]

Looks like a beautiful beer! alot of work though! another method I have read about is making said beer as per normal then after fermentation heat to 175 to evaporate the alcohol. you'd have to brew appropIate styles (oxidation etc) though.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That is a possible method but you're really opening up the beer to tons of off flavors with that method - the oxidation will probably happen, you'd be taking a lot off its shelf life too (think of beer that's sat warm for a long time - now add more heat)

[@chipbrown4878]

Interesting. I am wondering what your thoughts are on pitching less yeast (for example, 1/4 packet) to stress that yeast?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Because of the very low pH of the wort I didn't want to mess with that.

[@jcbrews4fun]

I saw the clawhammer video using spent grains. They had you as a guest taster. How does it compare to this method? Thanks

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That was a long time ago, but I remember enjoying that quite a lot. I think their method is definitely more resource and time intensive than what I did here but the end result was light and tasty, but the body was quite thin (aka why I believed it was hop water)

[@szabobalazs1454]

Thank you for this very impressive video. Have you thought of using less yeast? This way, it may have expressed the characteristic witbeer flavor. On the other hand, the fermentation time might have been even longer.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

While it would have probably expressed a bit more character, the vey low pH in the wort was the reason for the extra yeast. That was already going to stress the yeast out a lot

[@whittj03]

What are your thoughts on stopping fermentation by “pasteurizing” back in the brewing system at 140 degrees until you kill the yeast (20-30 minutes maybe, I’ll have to check) ?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

You could certainly do that, but good luck not oxidizing the beer in the process!

[@whittj03]

@@TheApartmentBrewer Good point. I wonder if using my co2 tank to put a blanket of co2 on top would do any good.

[@sailormouth8356]

Do you think adding trace amounts of extrogenous ferulic acid could help with the lackluster phenolic charather?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Hadn't thought about that, maybe?

[@joejenna1484]

Wouldn't rye make the mouthfeel a little more robust and retain more flavors? I know you were going for a wit but I do suggest raw rye berries

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Rye and wheat are going to have similar body impacts, but the rye might be less smooth than the wheat, so maybe?

[@zzing]

I wonder about low to no alcohol sour / brett beer. With sour cherries perhaps.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

I imagine it is certainly possible. Berliner weisse is already a very low alcohol style so it wouldn't need to go much lower

[@davidhall158]

Interesting. I appreciate you.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Thank you!

[@gregperez3491]

Excellent video cheers 🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@marklpaulick]

Witbier does seem like the perfect style for a Nonnie.

[@GFunKd24]

lil wheaty 🤣🍻

[@Chasethisbread]

How does one arrest fermentation when brewing a low alc beer?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cold crash works best

[@Chasethisbread]

@@TheApartmentBrewerwill this permanently stop fermentation even if canning and not refrigerating?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

You can stabilize the yeast with potassium sorbate if you want to go further

[@andybryson3887]

Water profile says 16 ppm bicarbonate but no baking soda added ????

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

That is from the RO water base.

[@jcbrews4fun]

How do you make the tincture ?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Peel an orange and soak the peel in vodka for a few days, then add the liquid to the keg. Very easy method!

[@letsrelaxwithtexts2114]

Artichoke is the future, much healthier than hops

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Educate me, please

[@letsrelaxwithtexts2114]

@@TheApartmentBrewer there is many studies showing that hops is a somewhat estrogenic and alergenic for some people. Its is a potent relaxant. Not for everyone though. I for example get diahrea with bitter IPAS. This can explain thee beer gut for exemple. The tendency to get inflamation and boobs in heavy beer drinkers. Artichoke is awesome for the liver, Blood pressure, cholesterol and Blood sugar. The question is why only make beer with hops. Hops indeed has a better taste and preservant values. But why The german passed The 1500 law only allowence of hops usage? Sounds crazy I know, but i truly believe that beer is the most complete Food for humans, without hops and alcohol though. Take care

[@vikramjitsingh4538]

wish you Happy New year 2024.....cheers

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Cheers and happy new year!

[@preuc3367]

What kind of illness is possible?

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

Food poisoning.

[@Wind_Ninja_Jubei]

Non alcoholic beer. What is this tomfoolery😂

[@connorhulegaard2012]

Not sure why you have to trash on bud light to say your beer is enjoyable. I love bud light.

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

lol, I am not going to apologize for liking my beer more than bud light

[@connorhulegaard2012]

@@TheApartmentBrewer You goofball! I’d hope you prefer your own beer to bud light why else go through all the time and effort? My point is that you implied the flavors available in a bud light are bad. In reality there is nothing at all bad about a bud light. The flavors are delicate compared to a lot of craft brews but they’re nicely balanced and surprisingly layered in my opinion. Big flavors would hide the nuanced ones. If I nailed a bud light clone I’d consider it a big win. ;) Can’t wait for dry January to end😂 Cheers! 🍻

[@TheApartmentBrewer]

@@connorhulegaard2012 Fair enough! I'm not a fan of AB InBev or most of their beers but they do create a consistent product.