The Lemon Fool

kempiejon wrote:I've been trying the AF beers since Kaliber back in the 80s, mostly they are disappointing when comparing to real beer - I clearly miss the alcohol.

I find Ghost Ship 0.5 and Brew Dog Nanny State manage to retain the flavour without the alcohol. Sometimes I need the alcohol. When I just want a beer, but I don't need the alcohol, they will hit the spot.

Imbiber wrote:
Have you tried Fermentis Safale LA-01 yeast? It is designed to produce beers < 0.5 ABV

No I haven't yet. I'll look at that, thank you. I've only used 04 and 05 of theirs so far. All tasted good, clean with a strong ferment.

Would be quite fun to do a side by side brew with the 01 and see what flavours come directly from the alcohol rather than the grains.

I just checked out the safalis site and it says this...

POINTS OF ATTENTION
As the beer at the end of fermentation will contain a lot of residual fermentable sugars, it is mandatory to pasteurize the beer after packaging (between 80 and 120 PU).
This yeast is not suitable for cropping and repitching.

So t'would be interesting to see on how on earth you'd stop it being sickly sweet. I wonder how the professionals deal with it.

Pipsmum wrote:
So t'would be interesting to see on how on earth you'd stop it being sickly sweet. I wonder how the professionals deal with it.

Here's a guide:

https://steadydrinker.com/articles/how- ... r-is-made/

I think that as a home-brewer the only technique that you could use would be to limit the amount of fermentable sugars in the wort.

TBH I wouldn't bother trying to make very low alcohol beer.

RC

Ghost Ship is I believe brewed to a different method to many.

Brewer, Dan Gooderham explains how it’s made: "To make Ghost Ship 0.5%, we first brew a version of Ghost Ship 4.5% using East Anglian barley – locally-grown Rye Crystal malt and Cara malts. We dry-hop with Citra, Chinook and Cascade to create those bright, citrus aromas and flavours, and ferment as we would normally. The beer is then sent across to our reverse osmosis plant, where under pressure water and ethanol travel across membranes. The driver for the process is the concentration gradient of ethanol across the membranes. We add lots of water to carry the ethanol away leaving concentrated Ghost Ship, minus the alcohol. We then blend back some fresh water and carbon dioxide to create Ghost Ship 0.5%."

I've had it and it's a pretty good imitation. If you like Wheat Beer Franziskaner do a great low alcohol version.

ReformedCharacter wrote:TBH I wouldn't bother trying to make very low alcohol beer.

Inclined to agree with you, but too curious as to how to make it taste good not to try.

On the original topic;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54901824
Guinness is recalling cans of its recently-launched non-alcoholic stout because of contamination fears.
The brewer described the recall as "precautionary", but said "microbiological contamination" might mean some products were unsafe.

I said no good would come of it, messing with the natural order etc etc

Any Ale in an aluminium can is obviously a nonsense I don't care what anyone says.

Guinness withdrew this last year before I could buy any, and then I forgot all about it.

Last night, by chance, I saw an ad on TV for it, and while doing my weekly shop today, I found some in Sainsburys.

Just tried a can, and I have to say it's not bad. Not bad at all. Certainly the most acceptable zero alcohol beer I've tried. Perhaps not quite the same as real Guinness, but I'll need to get some real Guinness in and do a direct comparison.

It's a very acceptable drink

--kiloran

Thanks for the nudge. It looks as though Waitrose and Asda have got it, but not Tesco. (Or not my local one, anyway.)

Why did it disappear from the shelves after its launch? The Daily Wail said, back in August:

The Irish brewer initially launched Guinness 0.0 in October 2020 after a four-year endeavour to replicate the taste of the original but the product was recalled amid concerns of unsafe microbiological contamination in some cans.
As of today, the alcohol-free beer will be available in select Morrisons and Co-op stores this week followed by distribution in further supermarkets and pubs nationwide.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... avour.html

BJ

I'm not normally a Guinness drinker and in any case used to prefer the bottled variety.
However, when a tasted a bottle against a bottle of Fullers 1845, I realised how much depth of taste seems to have been lost since the early 1990s when I used to drink bottled Guinness more regularly.
Perhaps it is just my ageing taste-buds but what do others think|?

kiloran wrote:Guinness withdrew this last year before I could buy any, and then I forgot all about it.

Last night, by chance, I saw an ad on TV for it, and while doing my weekly shop today, I found some in Sainsburys.

Just tried a can, and I have to say it's not bad. Not bad at all. Certainly the most acceptable zero alcohol beer I've tried. Perhaps not quite the same as real Guinness, but I'll need to get some real Guinness in and do a direct comparison.

It's a very acceptable drink

--kiloran

I found them in Morrisons, In fact this post encouraged me to look for them. I polished off 3 cans last night, first can, first few draws I thought this is just like Guinness. By the end of can two though I could tell the nuances removing the alcohol had affected the drink. Something like the mouthfeel, it made the beer a little thin.
Like kiloran I think it's the most acceptable zero beer I've tried and specifically the most like the full fat version. Alcohol free Ghost Ship isn't quite like the original, Blue Becks tastes a bit smoky and Zero Cobra is a bit sweet. I tried the Big Drop Galactic milk stout and that's a pretty good alcohol free stout and Bavaria is a pretty good alcohol free drink but it's not quite like lager. I think Zero Guinness will be my pick on alcohol free occasions if it's available.

kempiejon wrote:

kiloran wrote:Just tried a can, and I have to say it's not bad. Not bad at all. Certainly the most acceptable zero alcohol beer I've tried. Perhaps not quite the same as real Guinness, but I'll need to get some real Guinness in and do a direct comparison.

I polished off 3 cans last night, first can, first few draws I thought this is just like Guinness. By the end of can two though I could tell the nuances removing the alcohol had affected the drink. Something like the mouthfeel, it made the beer a little thin.

I finally got hold of some cans last week, and have to agree with both kiloran and kempiejon. Yes, the taste is generally okay - they've adjusted the hopping in some way, so as to restore/replace some of the lost alcohol taste, and I think they've done it well. Maybe just a tiny touch lemony? But yes, I'd be happy to drink this all evening if I was the getaway driver on a night out at the pub. (That is, if I ever get to the pub again? )

Also agree that it's a little short of texture, compared with the real thing. Not as creamy, somehow. But what the heck, I'll be buying more of this. Last night's sample was at a cool room temperature - the other cans are cooling in the fridge. So far so good.

BJ

Since my review quoted I've not been able to enjoy/test anymore as my local Morrison's and Waitrose shelves have been empty - either it's so popular it needs a whole shelf rather than a section in the AF section or distribution problems/soft launch are holding back supply.

I had a can of this with my lunch back in June, when taking my granddaughter out to lunch. I must say that I was impressed, having given up drinking Guinness about 60 years ago. The flavour was all there. Very nostalgic, and encouraging for a drink suited to having to drive home afterwards.

TJH