How You Brew NA is no Small Matter

Find balance on a lower level 

Creating and refining recipes for low and non-alcohol beers is all about achieving harmony on a smaller scale. Alcohol provides flavor and also affects how other elements in the beer present themselves in balance. Without it, adjustments are necessary for dialing in flavor. Hops can be brighter or harsher. Unfermented maltose and maltotriose can be ​“worty” on the palate. These factors will need to be considered and compensated for in recipe design. 

Make malt count 

Malt choice is perhaps the biggest area for expression in NA beers, but there’s considerably less there to work with than in regular beers, so brewers need to make their grist choices count. Really beef up those dextrins to build body in the finished beer. Specialty malts that are big on character and lighter on fermentability can also go a long way to boost flavor. 

Can you mash it higher? 

NA beer mashing requires the brewer to get a bit creative. The goal is to fill out the body of a rather small beer. One route is to create a very dextrinous wort with limited fermentability and a low starting gravity. This can be done by mashing in the low 170°Fs and leaning heavily on dextrin malts. There are also studies that suggest mashing as high as 180 – 200°F can favor a dextrinous base while avoiding the production of fermentable sugars. The key here is that you will want to avoid extracting high levels of maltose in the mash, or risk an NA beer that is overly worty. It is important to remember that high temperature and small amount of malt used brings the mash dangerously close to astringent territory, so monitor the pH of the mash and acidify if necessary to reduce the extraction of tannins from the grain. Modifying the mash program to skip the sparge may also help avoid astringency. Target a starting gravity of 4 – 6°P.

Hop additions

Consider lowering hop additions in the kettle and whirlpool further than what might be typical for style in regular beer. A little bit goes a long way without more malt and alcohol to create balance. Prior to pitching, consider lowering the pH of the wort. A pH of 4.2 at the end of fermentation is ideal, and it must be below 4.6 to help promote microbial stability in the finished beer.

A healthy NA fermentation is going to be much faster than that of normal beers. Minimize time at normal temperatures (2 – 4 days) to shorten windows for microbial growth and spoilage and begin cooling the beer as soon as fermentation is complete. Like all beer, the fewer interactions with beer on the cold side the better, but the stakes are far higher for NA.

Rethink dry hopping

Dry hops can bring unwanted spoiler stragglers and hop creep could also promote further fermentation down the line. Consider substituting advanced cold side hop products that don’t need alcohol to act as a solvent to achieve the desired results. Also remember, flavorings could throw ABV out of spec, if they’re alcohol based. 

Crash carefully

Crash the beer as soon as possible after terminal gravity is reached, but be careful going too close to 32°F. The absence of ethanol will raise the freezing point, and you don’t want to give your NA beer the eisbock treatment. Keep the beer cold until ready for packaging. Make sure to test beer for microbial growth prior to tasting. 

Yeast: one and done 

NA beer yeast should not be re-pitched or propagated. The risk of microbial carryover to subsequent batches is too high.

As brewers continue to innovate in the NA space, more flavorful developments will come out. Consider using a regular Saccharomyces strain paired with a super high-temperature mash of 180 – 200°F to limit wort fermentability. Or a lactic acid-producing yeast on a low-gravity wort, which might limit alcohol in favor of creating acidity.