The main idea behind this is to minimize dextrins and residual sugars in the finished product. The former is accomplished in the grist and mash and the latter in the fermentation Nicefly's idea is a good one - low gravity with an attenuative yeast, like saison yeasts (the WLP 565 saison is notoriously finicky, but in a low grav wort, I bet it works fine. The French saison yeast is a beast). Of course, a Chico yeast is a good attenuator if saison is not your thing. Also, if brewing all grain, mash for a long time at the low end of the single infusion mash range to yield a less dextrinous wort. Avoid using crystal or cara anything. Just base malt. You might also use flaked corn or rice (my understanding is these produce little dextrin - someone can confirm or refute that), brewers corn syrup (not Karo!) or rice syrup, or other simple sugars in place of some of the malt. If brewing extract, I would use the lightest extract you can find, preferably one with no crystal or cara malts, and swap out some of the malt for simple sugar. If you don't want a low gravity beer, you probably want to swap out some of the malt in one of these ways. The beers that I have in mind when I think low carb are going to look a lot like a macro lager or cream ale. If you have the capability, use lager yeast - my understanding is that they are better than ale yeast at breaking down some of the shorter oligosaccharides. If anything resembling macro is not what you are after, you could probably find a lot of yeasts that are suitable besides the ones I mentioned above to vary things up a bit - but maybe stay away from low attenuation strains (European Ale yeast comes to mind as one to avoid). Also, there is probably some wiggle room for using specialty malts, but sparingly!
Yep, use a saison strain like 3711, or finish the beer with brettanomyces. All the beers I've done with brett as a secondary strain have finished completely dry (1.000).
Picking a nit... completely dry FG would measure at something less than 1.000 (exact value being a function of the OG), since alcohol is less dense than water. Final Gravities less than 1.000 are not unheard of.
I thought you might mean that. But I also thought you might be equating 1.000 with 'no residual sugars,' which I think is a pretty common misconception. I agree that 1.000 is Pretty Freakin' Dry (PFD).
I did this so I could still drink beer while I was on the Atkins diet. I made a rye berliner weisse. It was pretty much exactly what I was looking for; tons of flavor, very low alcohol. I'm going to brew another batch soon but with some woodruff thrown in near the end of the boil.
Awesome replies. Thanks! I was planning brewing a saison soon anyways. Any idea how to calculate carbohydrates? Let's say I do something like 88% pils and 12% sugar for example. estimated 1.035 og and 1.003 fg (4.1%) with 3724 yeast. Would you be able to determine the amount of carbohydrates? Cheers
I could be totally wrong (I'm a bit buzzed, and not very good at math) but according to my math that will get you a beer that's 112 calories per 12 ounce serving, with a 91% attenuation. I believe this would mean that 102 calories would derive from alcohol (at 7 calories per gram) and 10 calories would derive from carbohydrates (at 4 calories per gram) so you would end up with about 2.5 grams of carbohydrates per 12" serving. That's less carbs than Miller Light, and about the same as Michelob Ultra. P.S: in my experience, you will get slightly better attenuation with 3711 than with 3724.
Almost any beer has minimal carbs (low-carb beer is one of the great marketing ploys), but the lower the FG, the less residual carbs there are.
That's not really true. A beer like Rochefort 10 (ok, maybe an extreme example) will have about 24 grams of carbohydrates, accounting for 96 calories. (The rest of calories coming from the alcohol, at 7 calories per gram of alcohol). That's a pretty substantial amount for a 11.2 ounce serving.
True... I should have written "most beer has minimal carbs". The second point still stands. Rochefort 10 has a FG in the low twenties (1.02x), which is reasonably high.
