Brewing Techniques for Low Alcohol Beers

BJCP Grand Master Josh Weikert covers everything you need to know to scale down your full-strength recipe to a more affordable and crushable beer.
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Session beers aren't just a question of reducing the gravity (although that's one way to go, and we will be): it's a question of generating a lot of flavor from hops and finding light ways to balance those flavors. In this video, Josh Weikert takes you through the challenges and solutions to brewing lower ABV beers. Josh covers:
- Recipe considerations
- Scaling down your existing recipes
- Hopping
- Yeast selection
- Water chemisty
- Mash and boil considerations
- and much more
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Watch more video courses at learn.beerandbrewing.com

[@ianlaker9161]

What an absolutely superb video. A complex subject, really well explained. I'll be coming back to this time and again. As an experienced home brewer here in the UK, I'll be looking to brew more sessionable beers for moderate consumption. Although that seems a bit contradictory, it's important for me at the moment as I'm going through cycles of chemotherapy and lower gravity beers will enable me to continue to enjoy my passion. Thank you!

[@tomoverton2138]

I can't tell you the number of times I've been through this video! I've got pages of notes and reminders for my next attempt at a low-alcohol brew. I'm pleased that some of my previous assumptions regarding scaling and maintaining full-brew flavours were at least partially on track, but this brings the whole process to another level!

[@Beerandbrewing]

Thanks, Tom! Appreciate the kind words.

[@jamescombrink6909]

Thanks for the great presentation. Clear, succinct recommendations. Nice to hear that others feel the same as I do. Not every beer needs to be off the charts ABV.

[@bjornfisk]

Fantastic vidio! My first low alcohol brew was unplanned. I took the second runnings of a stout when I realized how much hard earned sugar was going to be tossed out. Ended up with about 8 liters of a 3%, tasty, "Brown Ale." I have also reduced the alcohol in all party beers. When many people are drinking free beer for many hours, the end of the party tends to go a bit better. As I age (55 years old) I'm getting more and more requests from friends to brew low a. beers for health reasons. If it doesn't exsist already, a book or online book, with low a. recipies could possibly do well. I would definatly be interested. Thanks for the excellent tutorial.

[@operitivo4635]

Very well done video. But I'd have liked to see the final product and how you actually make it

[@genandvin]

Excellent information & presentation. Thankyou

[@timwood8733]

fantastic video -many thanks

[@paskrell]

21:40 I do that with my gose. So many people‘don’t like sour’. I just tell them this is a refreshing beer. They suddenly love it.

[@paskrell]

Thx! Very informative! Cheers.

[@hatherlow]

thanks for this very useful

[@Kampela99]

heh, I did "mössö"(mixed many ingredient in pot is called that "pulp") pilsner and it became my first "care_free" beer.... I can drink it as much I want without getting too drunk - I love it, but now I hope to get some good info from this... 😋

[@defnotmee5085]

I only brew mead and braggots, but this was really interesting!

[@CascadesHomebrew]

Great video. It is nice to put a face to Josh Weikert after reading so many of his articles. Beers in the 2% to 3% range have little chance of commercial success, but as homebrewers those are all fair game! Is that "Session Imperial Stout" recipe available? I was recently thinking about trying a "big thick" stout in the 4% to 5% range.

[@Beerandbrewing]

Thank you! Yes, here are a couple of recipes that should work:
From Josh: beerandbrewing.com/little-raspy-recipe/
From Main & Mill: beerandbrewing.com/recipe-morning-session-stout/

[@CascadesHomebrew]

@@Beerandbrewing Thanks! I will have to add one of those to my list for this year.

[@johndurette8294]

Not commercially viable? I'd argue Guinness has done okay. While I don't think you could displace them I think you could broaden that low abv market.

[@eliasbram3710]

low alcohol beer is easy...for some reason all my brews are low abv even when i dont intent it 😂
(its curious how i always control the temperature, grind correctly the grains and control fermentation, but always low alcohol. Its actually not a problem to me)

[@bowlerhatman01]

I'm about 10 mins into this, and I'm super confused by the scale of the room. That paper towel roll is humungous, and why are those overhead cabinets so high? Please tell me you're green screened in :)

[@lucaparolin5623]

wait... 10:35 is the first time in my life I ear that residual sugars don't add sweetness!
and in my personal experience, they do it...

[@johndurette8294]

I would think candi sugar might leave sweetness without jacking up alcohol. Just keep your enzymes in mind - or inhibit them?

[@lucaparolin5623]

@@johndurette8294 I can't really say about candi or simple sugars because I don't usually use them.
He was talking about the sugars from your grains in the mash, and IMO, that's pretty straight forward: taste your wort, it's sweet right? yeast eats the sugars and leaves some behind, depending on differents reasons, the higher FG you end up with, the sweeter your final beer will be. One year later and at least 10 more brews under my belt, this never changes.

[@johndurette8294]

@@lucaparolin5623 we all understand that 'under your belt's is where the beer goes. Cheers!