non-alcohol beer

[freesia]

Okay, I know that there aren't many fans of the Non-alcohol beers around here...including myself...mainly because there aren't many that are worth drinking. I was just looking through a "brew your own" publication that says that any self brewed batch of beer can be simply made into a decent non-alcohol version with a few extra steps. I will include the link to the article.

I have done a search through Ratebeer on some of the alcohol free beers, and they sound less promising than the alcohol free Holsten and Becks that I've tried so far. I'm just really hoping that I could find out if someone out there knows of any way to get my hands on some half decent alcohol-free beer...especially for the holidays this year. Wouldn't normally be a concern of mine, but I've found out that I'm expecting, and wouldn't mind being able to share in a "drink" other than club soda and other sparkling juice type concoctions. Of course, that's assuming that I'll be able to continue to stomach the thought of beer...

http://byo.com/feature/66.html

Thanks for any advice/help,
Kim

[Jon Walker]

First off...congrats!

As for "non-alcohol" beer...there's little I could honestly suggest as being any good. I have found the Upper Canada Point Nine to be a fairly decent option though. Less than one percent is still a very nominal amount of alcohol and, from what I understand, a perfectly fine amount to be consuming whilst pregnant. There is a great deal of contradictory info regarding alcohol consumption and pregnancy. Some would have you believe that no alcohol at all is allowed while others indicate that a moderate amount is of no consequence. I'd do your research and figure out what makes sense for you. I'm no Doctor but my wife, pregnant recently, did a lot of research on all of this (from diet to exercise to supplementation to risk factors) and that is what she found out.

Here's a good article that show both sides;
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/refcap/3542.html

All this to say...I think a couple of Point Nine's with Christmas dinner should be just fine and a better taste option than the non-alcohol beers...but you have to know what you're comfortable with for you and your baby.

[dhurtubise]

The article you refered to is quite good. I couldn't tell from your post if you already brew at home or not but if you don't it has gotten very easy to make good quality brews in your domicile thanks to Festa Brew Kits from Magnotta.

I would probably chose the wheat, brown ale, or stout kit based on the usual recipe formulations (tend to be a little higher in dextrines or other flavour inducing malts that would compensate for the lost sweetness due to the alcohol being driven off).

Anyone who has ever made wine from juice or a kit can make beer from the Magnotta kits since they are about as easy to make - just pour the wort from the bag into a sanitized bucket or carbuoy, pitch yeast and cover. You let it ferment for about two weeks (with a transfer after about 4 to 6 days if you want to clarify it a bit) and bottle. Of course, for low alcohol beers, you would rack it and heat it for 30 minutes at 180F in your oven as per the article, add 1/2 cup of priming sugar (white sugar can do fine though dextrose is probably preferable) then cool to room temperature, pitch yeast and bottle.

As per article, don't brew a kit that has much hop aroma or flavour. Usually, about half the hops are added for these purposes and you could easily find yourself with a beer twice as bitter as you would expect with no hop aroma or flavour - as such, I would probably avoid the pale ale and lager, but probably any of the others would be fine. By the way, the wheat beer kit can easily be made into a delicious weissbier by buying a White Labs Heffe Weizen IV liquid yeast and pitching it to the brewery wort - however, you might drive off some of the yummy banana esters in your dealcoholizing process.