I need a recipe for a Low calorie beer

[SilverAnalyst]

Title says it all. I want to make a low calorie beer that my wife won't mind sharing with me. Thanks for any suggestions.

[oblivious]

I don’t have a recipe per say, but the mash/ fermentation conditions will have a very big part to play

You could mash at 64-65 for 2-3 hours, similar to what bud does, to get a more fermentable wort and also left out crystal malts as these un-fermentable sugars. Furthermore you could look into adding some beer enzyme to break down dextrin’s that are left.

Maybe ferment with Nottingham yeast as its a little more attenuation than others

[delboy]

Depends on what you mean by low-cal (i know that sounds stupid).
The cals in beer come from two main sources, unfermented sugars/carbs and the alcohol itself.

To make a truly low cal beer you have to make something that is watery and low in alcohol, you can however make a low carb beer ie where most of the sugars have been converted to alcohol (like the holsten pils adversts of the past), i presume this is what you mean.

It depends on how you intend to make beer ie all grain (you have a lot more control over the process) or using kits/extracts).
If you are just starting out and using kits probably the best way of acheiving this is to use a yeast that is a very high attenuator ie converts more of the sugar into alcohol something like safale us-05 would be quite good.

Most yeast will convert about 70-75 % of sugars into alcohol, US-05 will probably get it up to 75-80%.

You could also ligthten beers by adding sugar to them (beware more than about 20% will have a detremential affect on the flavour). Sugars such as dextrose are 100% fermentable so the yeast will convert all of it into alcohol, so while the beer will actually be higher in cals it will have a greater amount of cals in the form of alcohol.

You can also use enzymes (dry beer enzyme) that will break down unfermentblle sugars in the kits (dextrins) that the yeast will then convert completely to alcohol, the downside is that you will end up with a 'dry' watery beer with little mouthfeel, but on the upside more of the cals will be from alcohol rather than sugars.

If you are doing all grain thats another scenario again!!

Sorry if it sounds confusing, but i think the marketing men have played a big part in confusing people into thinking that you can get low cal beers (you can but the will have to be low in alcohol to properly acheive this)

[delboy]

You'd be better off going for a low alcohol beer rather than turning more of the sugars into alcohol.

Whats the point of that

I suppose it depends on what he wants if its something like bud light then converting more of the sugar into alcohol is the way to go, at least the yeast will have taken some of the energy out of your typical sugar molecule iirc its 38 ATPs generated from a glucose molecule and the yeast only extract 2 ATPs leaving another 36 up for grabs when we get it back from them.

Not much of a difference granted, but still some.

I guess low-cal and beer shouldn't appear in the same sentence.

[oblivious]

Just because we like to drink it by the bucket/1/2 bucket full, doesn't mean it has to be.

Your theory is strange and frightening!

[delboy]

Alternatively drink less (seriously), make something that you think will appeal to her taste buds and serve it to the missus in a wine glass, it has less calories than wine and pretty much all the supposed benefits as far as i'm aware. Just because we like to drink it by the bucket/1/2 bucket full, doesn't mean it has to be.

Thats probably the best advice right enough!!

For anyone thats interested in ethanol as a energy source in the body take a gander at the stuff below.

Long story short, become an alcoholic and lose weight

Because the U.S. population derives, on average, 4 percent of dietary calories from ethanol, and very heavy drinkers derive well over 50 percent of their calories that way, it is important to consider the implications of ethanol as an energy source. Data from the physical chemistry laboratory predict that the combustion of ethanol could yield 7.1 kilocalories (kcal) of energy per gram. In most situations, however, this theoretical value probably is not achieved by the body. For example, subjects given additional calories as ethanol failed to gain weight (Lieber et al. 1965), an observation confirmed when 1,800 kcal of ethanol were added to the 2,600 kcal diets of hospitalized alcoholics (Mezey and Faillace 1971).

As additional calories, ethanol causes less weight gain than equivalent calories from carbohydrate or fat (Pirola and Lieber 1972). When carbohydrate was withdrawn from the diet and was replaced by ethanol for up to 50 percent of total calories, subjects actually lost weight (Pirola and Lieber 1972). This can be explained in part by the fact that ethanol increases oxygen consumption and metabolic rate in normal subjects, and more so in alcoholics (Tremolieres and Carre 1961; Stock and Stuart 1974; Stock et al. 1973). Some of this effect is due to increased heat production after eating, a phenomenon known as dietary thermogenesis. Another mechanism of energy wastage is the metabolism of some of the ethanol by pathways that do not result in the usual storage of energy in high-energy phosphate compounds (Pirola and Lieber 1976).

[delboy]

Just because we like to drink it by the bucket/1/2 bucket full, doesn't mean it has to be.

Your theory is strange and frightening!

[SilverAnalyst]

Yeah, if I can re-create Holsten Pils I will be very happy!

[delboy]

Hi Silver
What way are you brewing at the moment kits or grain?

[SilverAnalyst]

Hi Delboy, at the moment I'm using Liquid malt extract with dried yeast.

[steve_flack]

You don't see many fat alcoholics...you see a lot of fat beer drinkers that quite fancy a kebab/ruby etc...

[SilverAnalyst]

steve_flack, yeah that's all fine and well. But I'd still like to create a beer that's 1 wait watchers point to 250 mls.

[SilverAnalyst]

Gosh, I didn't think it would be this hard to make a low cal beer. I'm willing to drop to 3% alcohol.