Curious about crafting your own non alcoholic IPA beer? In this guide, brewing geek Bryan Samoy explains how to brew alcohol free IPA using traditional all-grain techniques.
While crafting beer has been a timeless tradition spanning various cultures, the art of brewing tasty, non-alcoholic IPA is a relatively recent pursuit. Although both traditional IPAs and their alcohol-free counterparts share some common ground, the process of creating non-alcoholic beverages unveils a different set of challenges and creative techniques that will truly put your brewing skills to the test.
Brewing the perfect non-alcoholic IPA beer requires a few tricks up your sleeve to ensure a satisfying end product. Mastering these techniques is essential for homebrewers looking to explore this fresh alternative.
Non Alcoholic IPA Beer (Brew Recipe)
Supplies for Brewing Alcohol Free IPA
Equipment needed:
- Grain bag
- Hop bag
- Digital thermometer
- Bucket fermenter
- 3-piece airlock
- Mash paddle
- Wort chiller
- Bottle filler
- Bottle caps and capper
- Beer bottles
For more info on choosing and buying brewing equipment read this article.
Ingredients for Brewing Alcohol Free IPA
Grains
In this recipe, we’re using a grain bill designed to produce a lower alcohol content.
- 5.5kg Weyermann Pilsner Malt
- 0.5kg Weyermann Carapils Malt
- 0.5kg Weyermann Vienna Malt
Hops
- 100g Nelson Sauvin
- 100g Motueka
- 100g Superdelic
Yeast
- 11.5g Safale US-05
You can substitute the yeast for a specialty non-alcoholic brewer’s yeast. These specialty yeasts consistently produce beers with alcohol <0.5% abv, by selectively fermenting some sugars and not others. Check out our article on yeast strains for alcohol-free beers for more information and help.
How to Brew Non Alcoholic IPA Beer
Part 1: Brewing Your Non Alcoholic IPA Beer
The Mash
- Start by heating 20 liters of water for your mash to around 70°C. This temperature level accounts for any drop during mixing.
- Once your water is ready, pour your grains into the grain bag and add in your milled grains to create your mash.
- Use your mash paddle to give it a good stir and allow it to sit for about 60 minutes at 65°C.
- After an hour, raise the temperature to 75°C. Once you’re there, let your mixture simmer in it for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make sure you have your 12 liters of sparge water ready and also warmed up to 75°C.
Sparging
- Take out the grains from the wort and give it a good rinse using your pre-warmed sparge water. Let it all drain out.
- Once it’s completely drained, you can now remove your grain bag.
Hopping & Boiling
Time to raise your wort to a boil. Grab your hops bag and simply follow this suggested hop schedule:
- 15 minutes into the boil, you may add 50 grams of Nelson Sauvin and let it boil for 45 minutes.
- After that, toss 50 grams of Motueka and 50 grams of Superdelic in the last 5 minutes of boiling.
- When you are at flameout, pop in 50 grams of Nelson Sauvin, 50 grams of Motueka, and 50 grams of Superdelic into the hop bag and let them steep for an additional 10 minutes.
When the boil is done, grab your wort chiller to quickly cool down the mixture to about 18°C before carefully transferring it to a sanitized fermenter.
Pitch the Yeast
- Once it reaches 18°C, aerate the wort by shaking it profusely and then pitch in the suggested yeast packet. Make sure your yeast’s packaging is completely sanitized to avoid contamination.
- Once the yeast is pitched, you can raise your wort’s temperature to 20-21°C.
Leave your IPA beer to ferment undisturbed for around 10 days, or until fermentation has finished, according to your hydrometer readings.
Part 2: Carbonating & Bottling the Beer
Dry Hopping
After about 10 days, or when you see that the fermentation process has finished, it’s time to toss in your dry hops.
Simply pick a hop of your choice and toss it in (or put it in a hop bag) your mixture. I use New Zealand Superdelic hops in mine, crossing my fingers that it gives my homebrew IPA its candy and fruity flavors.
Remember to keep everything well sanitized, all while minimizing oxygen exposure as much as possible.
Give it a good two weeks to allow the fermentation and settling process to finish.
Alcohol Removal
If you used a specialty non-alcoholic brewers yeast as discussed earlier, which is designed to keep the alcohol content to a level considered suitable for alcohol-free beers (<0.5% abv), you should be good to skip ahead to carbonation and bottling.
If not, at this point, you’re going to have alcoholic IPA beer. While the grain bill in this non alcoholic IPA beer recipe was put together with the aim of making a lower alcohol brew, it will still have some alcohol.
To get rid of that alcohol, follow the alcohol-removal steps in our How to Make Non Alcoholic Beer article. Basically, it involves heating the beer to around 82°C to evaporate the alcohol off.
Bottling
Keep your empty beer bottles, bottle filler, and bottle capper on hand. Bottle like you usually do, and let it condition for about two more weeks.
With regard to carbonation, whether you force carbonate and keg, or bottle condition, is up to you. For more information on those two options for getting bubbles in your brew, check out our How to Make Non Alcoholic Beer article.
Tips for Limiting the Alcohol Level
There are a few ways to make a non-alcoholic IPA. However, we’ll dive into the simplest ones so you can better understand and maybe even impress your friends on your next visit to the pub.
Controlled Fermentation
Basically, we’re cutting down on the sugars that yeast loves to ferment during the brewing process. By doing this, we can keep the fermentation going at a cooler temperature, which means less alcohol ends up in the final product.
How do you do it? Simply reduce the temperature of the water in the mash. Remember that alcohol develops during fermentation when the beer and yeast reach temperatures over 15°C (60°F). So, bringing its temperature down quickly during brewing allows the yeast to develop its flavors without cranking up the alcohol levels as it does in regular IPAs.
Remember that if you don’t let the yeast complete its process, your homebrewed IPA’s alcohol content significantly drops. By using this method, you end up with non-alcoholic IPA made pretty much the same way as the regular stuff.
Specialized Yeasts
Recent advancements have led to new yeast strains designed specifically for brewing non-alcoholic IPA. By tinkering with sugar levels and pitching in these unique yeasts, homebrewers can whip up the flavor of an IPA without its alcoholic kick.
These yeasts ferment only some of the sugars in the wort, giving brewers better flavor control and making non-alcoholic IPA beer possible.
Conclusion
For most people, cracking open a non alcoholic IPA beer, enjoying the taste, and moving on is the norm. But, if you’re anything like us, chances are you’re dying to know how to whip those non-alcoholic brews.
Wonder no more! We’ve just dished out all the juicy secrets of crafting that perfect non-alcoholic IPA.
By understanding the intricate step-by-step process of brewing alcohol-free IPA, you’ll nail this beloved beer’s aroma and flavor, all without the alcohol content.
