[thirstystork]

Beer aficionados - We are looking for a brewing partner in the Atlanta area to help kick start a new non-alcoholic craft “brewery” (we know…not as fun as the real stuff but it’s a growing market…) We are looking to start the conversation around brews and a brand so if you are interested and have some experience home brewing or in a brewery hit us up at thirstystork@gmail.com .

[PharmBrewer]

Good idea.  I am making good headway with Session beers.  Shouldn't be too hard to go further. 

[thirstystork]

Nice! Would love to get our hands on some of your session beer. Let us know if you plan on making any progress on non-alcoholic beer and we'd love to help in some form or fashion.

[PharmBrewer]

Do you know what is the lower limit of alcohol is to officially designate it as non-alcoholic?

[PharmBrewer]

I did find this:

In the United States, beverages containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) were legally called non-alcoholic, according to the now-defunct Volstead Act. Because of its very low alcohol content, non-alcoholic beer may be legally sold to minors in many American states.
Low-alcohol beer - Wikipedia

In the United Kingdom, the following definitions apply by law (correct as of May 2007):

No alcohol or alcohol-free: not more than 0.05% ABV
Dealcoholised: over 0.05% but less than 0.5% ABV
Low-alcohol: not more than 1.2% ABV

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-alcohol_beer

[denny]

I did find this:

In the United States, beverages containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) were legally called non-alcoholic, according to the now-defunct Volstead Act. Because of its very low alcohol content, non-alcoholic beer may be legally sold to minors in many American states.
Low-alcohol beer - Wikipedia

In the United Kingdom, the following definitions apply by law (correct as of May 2007):

No alcohol or alcohol-free: not more than 0.05% ABV
Dealcoholised: over 0.05% but less than 0.5% ABV
Low-alcohol: not more than 1.2% ABV

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-alcohol_beer

Just so you know. it's pretty much impossible to get that little alcohol without special equipment.

[PharmBrewer]

Yes, this is a good article on the matter:

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/5VGRSbEfTv/non-alcoholic-beer/

[thirstystork]

I've read several articles on this process and they make it seem (at least for home brewing), that you can take existing recipes (some better than others) and heat the brew to evaporate the alcohol and then re-carbonate with natural yeast. I'm confident it's not this easy, but just wondering how complex of a process this is.

Understanding that if you were to try to do this in larger batches, you'd want to invest in some more expensive equipment to make the process more efficient and exact.

http://byo.com/body/item/263-brew-a-great-non-alcoholic-beer

[ethinson]

This is what I was going to suggest. From the beerandbrewing link

"(9) Diluting finished beer with deoxygenated brewing water to the desired alcohol level as an extrapolation of the method used by high-gravity brewers is the simplest method of producing non- or lower-alcohol beer, but this method dilutes all beer color and flavor compounds concomitantly. "

I imagine this is what the major beer producers do.  They could have the equipment to do the boiling and evaporation but this is still easier.  Make up a dark "strong" flavored beer that's 4% (like Coors Light with more color) and then dilute it down so it retains some of the color and flavor.   We do small dilutions to adjust ABV if we're too high for TTB.

[jrdatta]

You are going to need a way to create a vacuum in your boil off chamber so that you can evaporate off the alcohol without really heating the beer too much and making the hops super flat and super bitter.  While possible to do on a homebrew level, it is very difficult.

[dmtaylor]

Methinks the process is way more difficult and pricey than most people would think.

David M. Taylor
B.S. Chemical Engineering 1997
Michigan Tech

[denny]

Methinks the process is way more difficult and pricey than most people would think.

David M. Taylor
B.S. Chemical Engineering 1997
Michigan Tech

Agreed.

[bayareabrewer]

Methinks the process is way more difficult and pricey than most people would think.

David M. Taylor
B.S. Chemical Engineering 1997
Michigan Tech

whoa, Michigan Tech! I love Houghton!!