Low-Carb Homebrew

[NulloModo]

Hi,

So, I enjoy a good beer, or, at least I used to. I really wanted to get into the homebrew thing, but for various reasons didn't. Now, I would like to start up, but my dietary intake as changed such that I would be interested in trying to do a low-carb homebrew.

There are several low-carb beers out there, and some are not bad, but all are pretty much American Mega-Brew clones, nothing particularly tasty either. I am wondering if this was done simply because there is no market for a low-carb real beer, or because making a beer low-carb somehow just makes it end up with those particular qualities.

I personally enjoy a very strong hoppy beer, and would love to be able to make something like that myself, but is such a thing feasible to do? I have no idea how to control the carb content in a finished product, but I figure that the more it ferments, and the more sugar/starch is converted to alcohol, the lower the final carb content will be, so this goes hand in hand with my desire for a strong beer.

Hops are just a grass aren't they? So I could load a beer up with hops and not have it effect anything in the nutritional value. I'm thinking I could make a darn tasty beer that is also low-carb, but I am wondering if there are any holes in my logic. Would other styles be equally accessible?

[Katherine]

Hi,

    So, I enjoy a good beer, or, at least I used to.  I really wanted to get into the homebrew thing, but for various reasons didn't.  Now, I would like to start up, but my dietary intake as changed such that I would be interested in trying to do a low-carb homebrew. 

There are several low-carb beers out there, and some are not bad, but all are pretty much American Mega-Brew clones, nothing particularly tasty either.  I am wondering if this was done simply because there is no market for a low-carb real beer, or because making a beer low-carb somehow just makes it end up with those particular qualities.

No, actually it's the unfermentable carbs in the beer that give it malt flavor and body. American-style premium beers start with less carbs, and are easier to ratchet down a little.

I personally enjoy a very strong hoppy beer, and would love to be able to make something like that myself, but is such a thing feasible to do?  I have no idea how to control the carb content in a finished product, but I figure that the more it ferments, and the more sugar/starch is converted to alcohol, the lower the final carb content will be, so this goes hand in hand with my desire for a strong beer.

You could make a strongly hoppy beer, or a strongly alcoholic beer, but as far as body and malt, you can't do that without carbs. Beer is made by fermenting out the fermentable sugars from the malt. They ferment, you bottle it and prime it, wait a couple of weeks for it to carbonate, and you're done. Beer yeast will not ferment non-fermentables, no matter how long you give it. You can make a strongly alcoholic light beer by stoking it with corn sugar, but it still wouldn't have flavor. Rule of thumb: the waterier the beer, the lower in carbs.

Hops are just a grass aren't they?  So I could load a beer up with hops and not have it effect anything in the nutritional value.  I'm thinking I could make a darn tasty beer that is also low-carb, but I am wondering if there are any holes in my logic.  Would other styles be equally acessible?

Actually, hops are a vine. You can buy a hops extract to add to your bottled beer to see if hoppier is happier. Not sure here. I suggest a book on beermaking before you start investing in equipment.

[Okbrewer]

Lo-carb beers have been the topic of several articles in home brewing magazines the last couple of issues. Check your favorite bookstore for issues of Zymurgy and Brew Your Own, both have had articles as well as recipes. I haven't paid too much interest in either because I didn't get in to home brewing to make bland tasteless hop water! But to each his/her own.

[NulloModo]

Hmmm, that is discouraging. I will have to pick up one of those books and see if I can find some things I could add to give it body and taste...

i love malty hoppy strong beers, heaven is a glass of La Fin du Monde, alas, it is dietary poison for me at the moment ;).

[aiki_brewer]

Actually, alcohol (CH3OH) is a carbohydrate, too, so having the yeasties converting the sugar into alcohol doesn't actually reduce the carbohydrate content.

Now, while I wouldn't try this myself, it IS possible to add some body and "mouthfeel" to your beer, after you've reduced the amount of malt going into your wurt in an attempt to make "low-carb beer;" however, doing so is going to ratchet your carb content back up again. You can add lactose, AKA "milk sugar," which is a sugar that yeast can't digest and therefore remains in the finished beer to add a slight sweetness and body. You should be able to get it from your homebrewing supply shop, if you want to try this. (Of course, if you're lactose-intolerant, you probably won't want to.)

[mbanu]

There are several low-carb beers out there, and some are not bad, but all are pretty much American Mega-Brew clones, nothing particularly tasty either.  I am wondering if this was done simply because there is no market for a low-carb real beer, or because making a beer low-carb somehow just makes it end up with those particular qualities.

←

You could cut your barely malt with white sugar or some other ingredient with less unfermentable carbs. (corn or rice might do the trick, not sure) Or you'd have to get ahold of some amyloglucosidase enzymes. That's the thing that turns unfermentable carbs into fermentable ones. (If you want to get ahold of amylglucosidase from scratch, the old fashioned way of doing it is infecting your beer with the Aspergillus Niger fungus)

Light beers will be light on flavor. That's the nature of turning the flavor producing carbs into alcohol. But the flavors that do shine through don't have to taste like ass. This is something a lot of light brewers forget, or try to make up for with additives. If you brew it the traditional way, simply with the addition of the appropriate enzymes, no high-gravity brewing or sketchy additives, you'll probably be able to make something ok. :)

Edited March 20, 2005 by mbanu (log)

[nr706]

I personally enjoy a very strong hoppy beer,

<snip>

    Hops are just a grass aren't they?

Hops are a vine. Quoting from Randy Mosher's fascinating book "Radical Brewing" ...

"Hops are the green, fluffy cone-shaped catkins (technically strobiles) of the climbing vine Humulus lupulus, the only sibling of marijuana in the Cannabaceae family."