Excellent points! And an argument that will continue to fuel disagreements with my partner for some time ... despite that article you posted.MashBag wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 10:09 am
I agree & I fancy giving this a go, but am unsure what the benefit is..
If it is create a school night and beer which is very low in alcohol for safety / driving purposes, I get it.
However.. If it is to help control weight or diabetes type issues then I am not sure what the chemistry is actually doing.
Does this method extract less sugar(s) from the grain?
-or-
Is it extracting the same amount of sugar(s) but is leaving it unfermented?
The latter not necessarily making a beer that is any better for us. In fact, far from it...more sugar (fermentable or otherwise) in the product is a bad thing.
Alcohol is not a carb, the unfermented sugars are.
Beer drinkers get belly's. Wine drinkers don't and unit for unit often consume more alcohol (different problem)
https://type1traveler.com/2016/02/09/a- ... rmentation.
Thoughts??
She claims the alcohol keeps her over-weight. I claim the eating keeps her over-weight. That article does leave that debate slightly open-ended (and a bit mind-numbing!).
The problem I think stems from the statement in your quote:
"Does this method extract less sugar(s) from the grain?
-or-
Is it extracting the same amount of sugar(s) but is leaving it unfermented? "
It's not an "or". It's either! "High Temperature Mashing" edges towards the latter hence is a good way to hang on to flavour without excess alcohol, whereas using less ingredients will reduce flavour as well as alcohol. "Cold Mashing" could go either way if you are not very careful, and also haven't destroyed your brewing equipment in the process!
At Xmas I had brewed an "Ale". A "historic" ale that is. "Ale" was a foodstuff and the laws-of-the-land treated it as one, alongside bread. The common way of thinking it is "beer" has hops, "ale" has no hops. But that is bo11ocks! My attempts produced a drink that had an OG of 1.071 ( ) and FG of 1.034 ( ) with an enormous calorific value (from the carbohydrate "dextrin" not from alcohol!). Dextrin isn't very sweet BTW. Alcohol in the ale was less than 5%. Like some "low alcohol" beer, it had the potential to make you very fat!
I find the "benefits" of low-alcohol beer very obvious: I can continue drinking my home-brew every night (full alcohol most nights), but not at high risk of developing a disastrous dependency.