Charlie Bamforth joins me this week to discuss methods for brewing low alcohol and alcohol free beers.
Subscribe on iTunes to Audio version or Video version or Spotify or Google Play
Download the MP3 File– Right Click and Save As to download this mp3 file.
Topics in This Week’s Episode (49:24)
- This week I welcome back Dr Charlie Bamforth, Professor Emeritus from the University of California at Davis. Charlie specializes in the study of the wholesomeness of beer including beer perception, polyphenols, foam stability, oxidation and flavor stability.
- We start with a short dicussion of Charlie’s latest projects including his many books.
- We start with the definition of low alcohol and alcohol free beers, which varies slightly depending on which country we are talking about.
- Charlie then explains perhaps the oldest method of making alcohol free beers which is to brew a regular beer and then remove the alcohol by boiling it off, usually under a vacuum (vacuum distillation).
- We talk a bit about the downsides of distillation which often changes the character of the beer in bad ways and also ages it.
- Next we briefly talk about using membranes and reverse osmosis to separate the alcohol from the beer. This has some advantages as it does not heat the beer, but can be quite complex and involved requiring specialized equipment.
- Next we discuss additional methods which are often done in combination, starting with mashing at a very high temperature.
- Charlie tells us about fermentation techniques including arrested fermentation and low temperature fermentation.
- We talk about the innovative new yeast strains many of which are maltose negative so they don’t ferment maltose well and produce very low alcohol levels during fermentation.
- Charlie explains how often 3 or more techniques are combined such as high mash temperature, low temperature fermentation and specialized low alcohol yeast.
- We discuss the challenges of creating the proper balance in a beer with low alcohol levels and how you need to adjust your hop schedules, malt bill and gravity levels to create the proper balance in a low alcohol beer.
- Charlie provides some recommendations on the best methods for a homebrewer to use.
- He shares his closing thoughts.
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
- Also check out BeerSmith, BeerSmith Web, BeerSmith Mobile software and the DVDs John Palmer and I filmed – How to Brew with Malt Extract and How to Brew All Grain are available now. You can subscribe to the BeerSmith newsletter for free to get some great articles on home brewing.
iTunes Announcements: I launched a new video channel for the BeerSmith podcast on iTunes, so subscribe now! At the moment it will only feature the new widescreen episodes (#75 and up). Older episodes are available on my revamped Youtube channel. Also all of my audio episodes are on iTunes now – so grab the older episodes if you missed any.
Thoughts on the Podcast?
Leave me a comment below or visit our discussion forum to leave a comment in the podcast section there.
Subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes or BeerSmith Radio
You can listen to all of my podcast episodes streaming live around the clock on our BeerSmith Radio online radio station! You can also subscribe to the audio or video using the iTunes links below, or the feed address
- Audio feed on iTunes – (direct: http://beersmith.com/content/feed/podcast)
- Video feed on iTunes – (direct: http://beersmith.com/tv/category/podcast/feed/ )
- Audio podcast on Google Play here
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and my newsletter (or link at the top of the page) – to get free weekly articles on home brewing.
Thanks for sharing such a important information, for very begining of my career I always watch you podcast.