If this is your first attempt at brewing NA beer, we suggest sticking closely to the recipe. Get the basics down first, then tweak from there. For more tips, see “Nonalcoholic Brewing Best Practices.”
In this recipe, fermentation with Berkeley Yeast’s NA Classic strain substantially minimizes the wort-like character typically remaining after fermentation with other NA yeast strains; a large dilution with water in the kettle before boiling creates a smooth beer with a very clean profile. Remember: Following key food-safety measures—especially important in a no-/low-alcohol beer—will result in a safe product.
ALL-GRAIN
OG Pre Dilution: 1.021 (5.3°P)
OG Post Dilution: 1.016 (4.1°P)
FG: 1.013 (3°P)
IBUs: 10
FINAL pH: ≤ 4.2
ABV: 0.5% or lower
MALT/GRAIN BILL
70% North American 2-row
15% Vienna malt
15% Dextrin malt
HOPS SCHEDULE
0.25 lbs (113 g)/bbl Crystal T90 at 30 minutes
YEAST
DIRECTIONS
Mash in at 160°F (71°C). Rest for 10 minutes, then mash off. Target a mash pH of 5.1. Vorlauf as usual, but before beginning the sparge and lauter, you need to find a way to keep the wort runnings’ pH from elevating. With so little grain to buffer the pH rise from the sparge, you will very quickly begin to extract harsh tannins from the grain. Either adjust your sparge water with a hefty dose of acid or add some acid to the top of the mash (and continue to add it over and over during sparging). Don’t worry if your start-of-boil pH is lower than you are used to. You want a pH of 5.0 or lower going into the fermentor to help slow growth of any microbes (if any) besides the yeast.
Your wort should be at a concentration of 1.021 (5.3°P). Dilute it by about 23 percent to achieve a start-of-boil gravity just under 1.016 (4.1°P). Boil and concentrate to 1.016 (4.1°P) over an hour. Once you reach the correct concentration, boil for 60 minutes or more depending on how vigorous your boil is, adding hops according to the schedule. Check your wort pH before KO. Lower it to 4.9–5.0 with food-grade acid. Low pH on the cold side will slow the growth of pathogens.
Chill the wort to 68°F (20°C), aerate to 8–10 ppm, pitch your NA Classic yeast (pitch rate: 1.5 million/ml/°P), and set your tank to 68°F (20°C). A large pitch rate will result in a faster fermentation of about 1–3 days, which is a good thing. As we mentioned before, less time warm is better! We also advise you to add a small amount of ALDC enzyme at the beginning of fermentation to reduce tank residence time. At the end of fermentation, remove the yeast. Do not repitch. Microbial carryover to a second batch can result in a product that could spoil your beer or make people sick. Adjust your pH even lower to further safeguard against pathogens: a pH of 4.0 is safe, 3.7 pH is safer.
Set your tank to 36°F (2°C), but no lower or you may freeze your beer, resulting in an increase of alcohol in the liquid fraction. Continue to shave off settled hops and yeast daily. Adjust sweetness and body with brewer’s crystals and/or maltodextrin.
Carbonate as high as your packaging line or your packaging medium allows you to (or your pasteurizing process allows). Filter your beer if it is going to undergo pasteurization, then tunnel or batch pasteurize. Bottle or can your beer.
BREWER’S NOTES
Mash
Mash in as you would with normal strength beer. Depending on the diameter of your mash tun and because there is so little grain in a recipe of this gravity, you may need to add more grain to fully cover the bed. If that is the case, cut off your lauter early and water back in your kettle to keep your gravity in spec. You can also add rice hulls and keep the grist the same. Both of Berkeley Yeast’s NA strains are Saccharomyces strains from which the ability to ferment maltose and maltotriose has been removed. With this in mind, we are looking for extract from our mash that contains very little glucose to ensure a very small amount of fermentation.
Purge the Fermentor
Use CO2 or Nitrogen to remove the air from the headspace of the fermentor after wort transfer. Due to the low degree of fermentation the headspace may not be fully scrubbed of Oxygen by the fermentation’s CO2 production resulting in premature oxidation of the beer.
Lauter Process
Each brew house is different so it may take some trial and error to get the wort concentration right. Why not use less grain and forego the dilution? There is already so little grain in the recipe that a further decrease in grist size may be impossible to lauter properly and may also lead to higher astringency.
Hot-Side Hopping
Any NA beer should be carefully hopped. Because of the low ethanol, over-hopping will quickly overwhelm the beer. This easy-drinker isn’t relying on hops, but some presence will help mimic the character of normal-strength beer. The single hop addition gives us the bitterness we need after dilution and builds in a hint of hop flavor.
Fermentation
As you start fermentation, you are leaving the safety of the hot side. It is imperative from this point on to minimize process touches and transfer distances. Make sure your beer leaves the danger zone of fermentation temperature as soon as possible, especially if you are dry hopping or adding any nonsanitary ingredients. Once the beer is cold, the growth of pathogens will be slowed.
Cold Conditioning and Flavor Enhancement
Now that the beer is cold, you have some time to experiment. The NA space provides a new playground for brewers to trial new techniques and additives to improve the flavor, body, and perception of this style. If you are going to diverge from this recipe, now would be a good time to do some bench-top trials and see what works for your brewery and brand. Keep bench trials to only a few days and always get to final processes as soon as possible.
Body Enhancements
Only employ these additives if you are going to sterile filter and/or pasteurize the product. We highly recommend tunnel or batch pasteurization for microbial stability. Undergo bench-top trialing to find your proper blend and amounts. The dilution may have attained a spot-on color and clean, lager-like aroma, but you may need to build back in some body so as to not be too thin and watery.
Carbonation
Good news! Recent research suggests that carbonic acid has bacteriostatic properties against major pathogens. Higher carbonation can increase the “normal-strength beer” perception of NA beer.
Clarification
We recommend that you filter your beer if it is going to undergo pasteurization because leftover organic material and yeast can form staling and autolysed flavors from the elevated temperatures during pasteurization.
Pasteurization
The gold standard to protect your customers from potentially unsafe beverage conditions is tunnel pasteurization. You can reach out to us at support@berkeleyyeast.com for a list of regional co-packing facilities that have pasteurizing technology. If tunnel pasteurization is not an option, please refer to the video below for further information on safeguarding your beer or email us for further food-safety and recipe tips and tricks.
Packaging
Only bottle or can your beer. Draft beer provides many points within and outside of the brewery atmosphere for bacterial pick up.
Safety
For more tips, see “Nonalcoholic Brewing Best Practices.”
About the Author
Tim Sciascia was hired in 2008 as a cellar person at Marin Brewing Co. north of San Francisco. Over five years, he moved up through the cellar and filtration positions, finally becoming the assistant brewer.
In 2013, Tim cofounded Cellarmaker Brewing Co. as the director of brewing and blending. Over 11 years, he helped grow Cellarmaker to nearly 6,000 barrels on dual 15- and 20-barrel systems. Hops and barrel-aged strong ales have always been of particular interest to him, and he has fermented award-winning beers with Berkeley Yeast strains for more than five years. Tim is now brand ambassador at Berkeley Yeast.
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This article originally appeared on Craft Beer & Brewing.
