Boiling Finished Beer?

[GlacierBrewing]

I'm wondering if anyone knows how long one would have to boil five gallons of finished beer (post-fermenter) that has an alcohol of 6.5% a/w in order to boil off all the alcohol.
Experimenting in the brewhouse.....

Prost!
Dave

[Jephro]

Alcohol has boiling point of 175°F, if i remember correctly. Not sure how long it would take to remove it all tho. Are you trying to make an N.A. Beer?

[GlacierBrewing]

Thanks Jephro,
Yea, I have a buddy who has diabetic issues but loves my beers so I thought I could make him a small keg of n.a. beer.

[Dough In]

Freeze it!

Freeze it pour off the alcohol. Could work if u have the resources, don't know if it's legal or not :-)

[GoldenArm]

There's an employee of Austin Homebrew Supply who has made a project of making very low alcohol beers (~1%). I don't remember all the details, but I believe he brews and ferments his beers as normal, then holds them at just above alcohol evaporation temp (180 or so) for around an hour. This supposedly gets rid of most of the alcohol without drastically changing the character of the beer in terms of IBUs, Maillard reaction,etc.

[GlacierBrewing]

UPDATE:
I boiled five gallons yesterday for 50 minutes at a temp between 170-204F. I crashed cooled and sampled it today.
YUK!
I do believe all the alcohol is gone however, all the hop oils are gone as well. It tastes like very weak malt water. Not appealing.

back to the brewing board......


Prost!
Dave

[olllllo]

Most homebrewers bake it in the oven around 180.

[Jephro]

Most homebrewers bake it in the oven around 180.

Hopefully not in a gas oven That does sound like a good idea for an electric oven, easier to control temp.

[gabewilson50]

Your best bet flavorwise for converting a regular beer into a N/A is to follow what many big boys do and bubble off the ethanol in a vacuum. At approximately 2 psia the boiling point of ethanol is about 77F, which is way below the severely damaging temperatures required to boil it off at atmospheric temperatures.

Comparatively the beer will still taste like crap. Ethanol contributes greatly to the flavor profile of beer and will not taste the same without it. You'll still lose volatile aromas, plus you have the problem of figuring out how to devise a container that can a) pull a vacuum of 2 psia and b) withstand a vacuum of 2 psia. Remember, too, that the final test to see how a beer tastes is when it's cooled and carbonated, not right after it's been boiled.

[twoodward15]

Your best bet flavorwise for converting a regular beer into a N/A is to follow what many big boys do and bubble off the ethanol in a vacuum. At approximately 2 psia the boiling point of ethanol is about 77F, which is way below the severely damaging temperatures required to boil it off at atmospheric temperatures.

Comparatively the beer will still taste like crap. Ethanol contributes greatly to the flavor profile of beer and will not taste the same without it. You'll still lose volatile aromas, plus you have the problem of figuring out how to devise a container that can a) pull a vacuum of 2 psia and b) withstand a vacuum of 2 psia. Remember, too, that the final test to see how a beer tastes is when it's cooled and carbonated, not right after it's been boiled.

Are you saying I can simply pull a vacuum (to your specs) and the alcohol will essentially boil off? A good undented sankey would probably withstand that vacuum. Your best bet is probably to befriend a local HVAC guy (beer usually works well for them) and start talking about what you want to do, all the while plying him with beer and food. I'll bet he can hook his vacuum pump up and make something happen. maybe start with a gallon in a sixtel and see what happens? I have a friend that does HVAC and next time I see him I am going to ask him about this.

[dick murton]

Or you could try high temperature mashing. From memory (of reading someone elses process), somewhere around 80 C with a 1038 SG wort would give a beer or near beer of about 1 % ABV. However, I guess this would not be suitable for a diabetic as it still contains most of the sugars - just that they don't taste as sweet as normal wort, but they undoubtedly have a similar effect on the digestion / blood sugar levels.

The whole point about freeze concentration is that it allows you to remove the water only, as ice, so all the flavours & alcohol are left in the residual wash. Hence, amongst others the Tactical Nuclear Penguin or what ever they are "brewing" this week.

I have run a plant using low temperature, low pressure evaporation for production of low alcohol beers, but this is obviously a bit expensive on a small scale, and I suspect would get you into problems with the licensing authorities unless registered as a distillery or similar