Today I am subtracting alcohol from Supermom's IPA, hence making it Supermom's "Foe" IPA. I am partially making this method up as I go, due to the shortage of detailed instructions online. Apparently not many homebrewers are actually interested in brewing beer without alcohol. Funny. I also asked the grumpy old dude at the Oak Barrel beer supply store about brewing non-alcoholic beer, and he told me it was thought of as very difficult to do well. So if I fail miserably I'll at least be in large company.
First, I took my fully-fermented but only partially hopped beer and racked it back into the brewkettle, which brought me to unexpected hurdle #1: my brew kettle is only almost 5 gallons. I'm used to boiling 2 1/2 gallons at a time. I grabbed another pot and switched over towards the end, which ended up being a good idea, because I avoided getting more sludge in my finished beer from the bottom of the fermenter. I will probably end up dumping that last couple pints of sludgy beer. Sad but better than picking sediment out of your teeth.
As the beer heated up towards 180 degrees, it got pretty foamy, threatening to overflow a few times. Stirring only made it worse. My plan was to bring it back to a full boil in order to throw some cascade hops in for aroma, then back the heat back down. Now I'm thinking that a full boil with a full pot will result in a hot and sticky situation. Instead I am going to attempt the hop tea approach. I will steep the hops in boiled water then add the water at the end of this unfermentation process.
To make I used 1 1/2 oz of cascade pellets wrapped (perhaps too firmly) in cheesecloth, plus a small handful of dried out whole crystal hop flowers. The resulting tea was somewhat aromatic, and tasted slightly bitter. Hope it adds something.
First, I took my fully-fermented but only partially hopped beer and racked it back into the brewkettle, which brought me to unexpected hurdle #1: my brew kettle is only almost 5 gallons. I'm used to boiling 2 1/2 gallons at a time. I grabbed another pot and switched over towards the end, which ended up being a good idea, because I avoided getting more sludge in my finished beer from the bottom of the fermenter. I will probably end up dumping that last couple pints of sludgy beer. Sad but better than picking sediment out of your teeth.
As the beer heated up towards 180 degrees, it got pretty foamy, threatening to overflow a few times. Stirring only made it worse. My plan was to bring it back to a full boil in order to throw some cascade hops in for aroma, then back the heat back down. Now I'm thinking that a full boil with a full pot will result in a hot and sticky situation. Instead I am going to attempt the hop tea approach. I will steep the hops in boiled water then add the water at the end of this unfermentation process.
To make I used 1 1/2 oz of cascade pellets wrapped (perhaps too firmly) in cheesecloth, plus a small handful of dried out whole crystal hop flowers. The resulting tea was somewhat aromatic, and tasted slightly bitter. Hope it adds something.
After 40 minutes of 180 degree temperatures on the stovetop, I took the beer off, added the tea and cooled down the now near beer with my sanitized copper coil. I'm being extra careful with sanitation today. Usually I am a bit more carefree, confident that the alcohol would kill most bacteria that would sneak through. My last hurdle before bottling was that it takes For-effing-EVER for 5 gallons of liquid to cool down to 75 degrees, the acceptable temperature for pitching yeast. Since the re-boil killed off any old yeast, I had to wait to pitch again along with 3/4 cup corn sugar in order for these 20 or so double duece bottles to have any fizzyspritzer to them.
Now it is time for the finger crossing. Will the bottles explode? Will the yeast survive? Will there be any hop aroma? Will the flavor be alright? Did the alcohol go away? Will it taste anything like beer at all?!? I'll try not to get my hopes up too high this week.
2 comments:
But I love you for your efforts.
so, did it turn out? was it at all palatable? (sp?)
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