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, Berkeley Yeast’s NA Classic strain makes it easy to restrain the ABV while creating the characteristics of a normal-strength beer. Meanwhile, judicious hopping and an addition of Abstrax extracts and natural flavors make for an aromatic, properly balanced IPA character. Remember: Following key food-safety measures—especially important in a no-/low-alcohol beer—will result in a safe product.
ALL-GRAIN
OG: 1.024 (6°P)
FG: 1.020 (5°P)
IBUs: 35
FINAL pH: ≤ 4.2
ABV: 0.5% or lower
MALT/GRAIN BILL
70% North American 2-row
20% Malted wheat
10% Dextrin malt
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
Your favorite IPA bittering hop to make up what you don’t get from the whirlpool addition at end of boil
0.75 lb (340 g)/bbl Citra T90 at whirlpool
0.75 lb (340 g)/bbl Mosaic T90 at dry hop
0.5 oz (14 g)/bbl Abstrax SIM Quantum Brite (extracted from Simcoe) post crashing
0.2 oz (6 g)/bbl Abstrax CHIX447—Omni Hop Profiles (mimics the profile of Chinook) post crashing
0.15 oz (4 g)/bbl Abstrax Pineapple—Skyfarm Series post crashing
0.15 oz (4 g)/bbl Abstrax Mango—Skyfarm Series post crashing
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.
Boil for 60 minutes or more depending on how vigorous your boil is. At the end of the boil, bring your wort temperature down below 200°F (93°C) either by running it through a heat exchanger or adding city water or cold liquor. A good target is between 190° and 200°F (88° and 93°C). Then add your whirlpool hops. Ignore the desire to go lower in temperature even if you regularly do so with normal-strength IPA. Hops are vectors for bacteria, so letting the heat kill any microbes before fermentation is essential. Check your wort pH before you knock out. 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.
Dry hop, then crash the tank immediately for two reasons: 1) any hop creep can put your beer out of spec; 2) adding hops can add some bacterial load, so getting cold fast is advantageous.
Cold condition, but do not set your tank temperature lower than 36°F (2°C) 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. To add more hop aroma and top notes to this NA IPA, use Abstrax brand extracts and flavors. 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.
Hot-Side Hopping
Because of the lack of ethanol and low starting gravity of this beer, you will need to keep overall hopping low. That being said, hot-side-hopping flavor carries over to the final product in a recognizably authentic way, so experimentation with kettle hops is a great method to make your beer stand out. The suggestions under “Hops & Additions Schedule” above is a good starting point. Target 35 IBUs.
Fermentation
As you head into 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.
Dry Hopping
NA beers have so little ethanol and minimal body that the bitterness and astringency from dry hopping can quickly overwhelm the beer. For this reason, the dry-hop rate is way lower than for a traditional IPA. However, there is nothing like the real thing, so a small addition of Mosaic gives you authentic dank aroma and flavor. We increase our aroma once the beer is cold with extracts and natural flavors.
Extract and Flavor Additions
Once 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.
We use Abstrax brand extracts and flavors. Minimizing the vegetative matter in this recipe provides a smoother drinking experience. If using “natural flavors” isn’t your thing, consider that NA beer production could be more closely associated with beverage production as opposed to traditional beer brewing.
Be mindful of any of the flavors you use. They might be alcohol based, so alcohol pick up from their addition needs to be calculated. The Abstrax products here are 100 percent alcohol-free. Adjust sweetness and body with brewer’s crystals and/or maltodextrin.
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.
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 recipe originally appeared on Craft Beer & Brewing.
