When starting your foray into alcohol-free beer brewing, you need to know what ingredients to choose and use. We explain what is in non alcoholic beer and the role each ingredient plays, so you can start brewing.
Non-alcoholic beers are quickly becoming a popular choice for those wishing to brew beer at home. As with any brewing process, careful selection of the correct ingredients and brewing techniques is crucial to a successful outcome.
In this article, we explain what ingredients are required for making a successful non alcoholic beer, and the role that each ingredient plays in the fermentation process and flavor profile.
What is in Non Alcoholic Beer? Overview
Like regular alcoholic beers, non alcoholic beers feature only a few key ingredients. It is the treatment of these beer brew ingredients and the individual character of those ingredients, that give rise to the many styles of beers and ales that we can enjoy.
What is in non alcoholic beer, then? The basic ingredients of alcohol-free beer, like any beer, are:
- Malt Extract (usually from Barley)
- Hops
- Water
- Yeast
Pretty basic, huh? While those are the basic ingredients, there are many other beer brew ingredients that can be added to beer to enhance the texture, appearance and flavor of the beer or ale. These include:
- Sugar (for flavor, alcohol or bottle conditioning)
- Adjuncts (eg herbs, spices)
- Fining Agents (eg irish moss, isinglass)
- Flavor Extracts
Next, we’ll look at each ingredient one-by-one so you understand what is in non alcoholic beer, why and how all the parts come together to form the brew you love.
What is in Non Alcoholic Beer? Essential Ingredients
Essential Beer Brew Ingredients
Malt Extract
Function
When it comes to beer, the number one source of fermentable sugar that is used to brew non-alcoholic beers comes from malt extracts. It is the malt that provides a non-alcoholic beer with its sweet taste and full body. If you’re wondering what is in non alcoholic beer malt extracts, the answer is grain. Most malt extract is made from malted barley, although other grains can also be made into malt including wheat and oats. Making malt is a whole art unto itself, that involves germinating the grain then roasting it.
How to Choose
In selecting a malt extract, there are two main options to choose from. Dry malt extract is concentrated and generally has a longer shelf life than liquid malt extract. However, liquid malt extract has not been processed as much as the dry option, which provides it with a richer, fuller flavor.
Other Considerations
It is important to pay close attention to both the color as well as the flavor of the malt extract. Much of the final taste of a non-alcoholic beer is a result of the type of malt extract that is selected for the brewing process. The type of malt can also determine how clear your non-alcoholic brew will be.
Hops
Function
Hops play a pivotal role in the aroma and flavor of a non-alcoholic beer. If you’re wondering exactly what is in non alcoholic beer to give it that bitter edge, the answer is hops. While malt provides the sweetness, the hops provide the bitterness. It is crucial when growing your own non-alcoholic beers at home, to ensure that the flavor of the hops is perfectly balanced with the malt. Hops also provides a preservative effect to the beer. While hops is almost always added to beer, technically it is not required; in fact, historically beers did not use hops at all, opting for other herbs instead.
How to Choose
There are many different varieties of hops to choose from, and selecting the right one for your particular non-alcoholic brew is crucial. The varieties have varying acidity levels which can affect both the aroma as well as the bitterness of the final product. You will want to select a variety of hops that perfectly complement the style of non-alcoholic beer you wish to brew.
Other Considerations
It’s crucial to ensure that your hops are as fresh as possible when brewing non-alcoholic beer. Depending on your location, it may not be possible to purchase fresh hops, instead, you may have to select from a variety of hops that have been either vacuum-sealed or nitrogen-flushed. Both of these processes will help to preserve the aroma and bitterness of the hops. But fresh hops are always the best option.
Water
Function
The vast majority of non-alcoholic beer is composed of water. Water plays a pivotal role in ensuring that all of the ingredients are well blended. Not only does it make up most of the beer’s volume, but it can also affect the feel of the beer in the mouth as well as the mineral content of the brew itself. As a result, special care must be taken when choosing water sources.
How to Choose
The most important factor that water plays in the beer brewing process, is the final taste of the beer itself. You want something that has been filtered or treated consistently, to ensure that it does not adversely affect the outcome of the brewing process. When brewing non-alcoholic beer, you should refrain from using chlorinated tap water.
Other Considerations
The chemistry of the water itself is crucial for any type of beer. Although it would be nice to find a perfect source for your water, there is usually always a need to make adjustments to the water itself, in order to create the profile needed for your brew.
Yeast
Function
Yeast is crucial to the fermenting and brewing process, as it converts the sugars contained within the malt, and converts them to both alcohol and carbon dioxide. It’s important to choose the correct yeast for brewing non-alcoholic beers, as the type of yeast will determine the alcohol content of the final product. For non-alcoholic beers, you will want a form of yeast that produces more carbon dioxide than alcohol, giving the beer a foamier and creamier feel.
How to Choose
As always, when selecting a strain of yeast for your non-alcoholic beer, it is important to choose a variety that has a low alcohol tolerance. Yeast that has a higher alcohol tolerance, will continue to convert sugar to alcohol, increasing the alcohol content. Yeast with a lower alcohol tolerance will die once the alcohol content gets too high. You also want to make sure that the strain of yeast has a high attenuation, as this will ensure an efficient fermentation process.
Other Considerations
When it comes to the fermentation process, there are other considerations to think about when selecting a strain of yeast. The temperature, pitch rate, and oxygen levels will determine how well a particular strain of yeast will perform when brewing a non-alcoholic beer. It is also crucial to maintain and manage your yeast colony to achieve the best flavor and aroma possible.
Optional Beer Brew Ingredients
Adjuncts
Function
If you are looking to add some unique flavors and characteristics to your brew, then you will need to add ingredients like fruits, grains, spices, and more. These additional ingredients that give your non-alcoholic beer more flavor and characteristics are known as adjuncts.
How to Choose
Take the time to choose your adjuncts properly, as they will play a crucial role in determining the final aroma and flavor of your non-alcoholic beer. You will want something that complements the profile that you want to achieve, which will require some experimentation. As always, pay close attention to the balance of your non-alcoholic beer, as you do not want the sweetness to overwhelm the bitterness of the hops.
Other Considerations
It’s important to make sure that you use adjuncts sparsely. While they are great for giving your non-alcoholic beer a unique flavor and aroma, they can quickly and easily overpower the base flavors of the beer itself. As a result, adjuncts can reduce the impact of the malt and hops on the feel, aroma, and color of the final brew.
Sugar
Function
Many brewers choose to add extra sugar to the brew for three main reasons:
- To increase the alcohol content, since sugar converts to ethanol (eg dextrose)
- Add extra flavor and mouthfeel to the beer or ale (eg honey, maltodextrin, lactose)
- Priming sugar for bottle conditioning (eg dextrose, sucrose).
Sugar is a broad term, with many types. So, with regards to sugar, which and what is in non alcoholic beer? That depends on the usage. For increasing the alcohol content and bottle conditioning, it is usually dextrose (a crystal form of glucose) or regular table sugar (sucrose). For adding flavor and texture, the choice of sugar depends on what you are wanting to achieve.
In this case, since you are brewing non alcoholic beer, you will not add the sugar to increase the alcohol content. Therefore, the main reasons for adding sugar when brewing alcohol-free beer are for flavor/texture and bottle conditioning. For instance, lactose is used in milk stouts to give a creamier taste and feel, honey-wheat beers receive their characteristic flavor from the addition of honey, and a thicker mouthfeel can be achieved by using maltodextrin (a very low sweetness sugar).
What is bottle conditioning? While some home brewers choose to brew small batches as needed, most prefer to bottle the extra beer and save it for later. If you are planning on bottling your non-alcoholic beer, then you will need to use priming sugar as it will help to naturally carbonate the beer itself. When used properly, priming sugar will provide your bottled beer with both carbonation as well as effervescence.
How to Choose
For flavoring, the recipe you use will dictate what type of sugar to use. You will learn more about sugars as you gain more brewing experience, after which you can craft your own recipes. However, it is quite complicated because different sugars behave differently, and to experiment with sugars you’ll need a good understanding of exactly how they react in the beer to gain predictable results (for instance, some sugars are fermentable to various degrees while others are non-fermentable).
Choosing sugar for bottle conditioning is more straightforward. Most of the time it will be dextrose or sucrose which are typically clean-tasting and don’t impart any additional flavor, but take the time to read through the recipe and select the right priming sugar for your particular beer’s style. Not only do you need to select the appropriate type of priming sugar, but you also want to make sure that the quantity is correct as well. All of this comes down to the style of beer that you are brewing, and the volume of the final product that will be bottled.
Other Considerations
Adding sugar will increase the alcohol content (except for non-fermentable sugars). In bottle conditioning this alcohol increase is negligible, but when using sugar for flavoring the alcohol content may increase significantly. When experimenting with sugars for flavor, be mindful that it is more complicated than you may think at first, and may lead to an unpredictable alcohol content.
Because of the effect of priming sugar on the carbonation and effervescence of bottled beer, precise measurement is essential. If too much priming sugar is used, it can over-carbonate the non-alcoholic beer, which can actually cause the bottle to explode. There are a number of excellent online calculators and reference tables that will help you determine the correct amount of priming sugar to use in every batch.
Fining Agents
Function
When looking the ingredient list on beer, it is probably the fining agents that most often sparks drinkers to question ‘Uh, what is in non alcoholic beer, exactly?’ Fining agents can have quite foreign sounding names such as isinglass and casein, but most are natural. So, why are they there?
When you brew beer at home, chances are you will have to deal with suspended particles and leftover yeast in the beer itself. These suspended particles can make your non-alcoholic beer very cloudy. Fining agents are essential to helping settle those suspended particles from the beer itself, creating a clearer, and more aesthetically appealing beer in the process.
How to Choose
There are many different fining agents that are available on the market today, and it’s important to choose the right one based on your personal preferences as well as any dietary restrictions. Three of the most common fining agents that are used include gelatin, Irish moss, and isinglass.
Other Considerations
Keep in mind the potential for allergic reactions when selecting a fining agent as some of the options can trigger an allergic reaction. Isinglass, for instance, is made from fish bladder and should be avoided by people with seafood allergy. If you are looking to brew a vegan non-alcoholic beer, there are also many different fining agents available that constitute as vegan-friendly.
Flavored Extracts
Function
Just like with adjuncts, flavored extracts can help to enhance both the taste and aroma of your non-alcoholic beer. If you’re wondering what is in non alcoholic beer to achieve exotic flavors such as vanilla and pumpkin, there are a few ingredients that can achieve this: the malt, adjuncts (eg fruits) or flavored extracts. The two most common flavored extracts used to brew non-alcoholic beer are fruit and vanilla. I have also used butterscotch extract. I personally have not used them in non alcoholic beer, but I’ve used them in making hard cider, and discovered that they can easily mess up the flavor of your brew if used carelessly. Where in doubt, leave it out. In cider, I’ve had the most success using it to reinforce existing flavors, rather than adding new flavor, for example in my cranberry-apple Christmas cider recipe, I add cranberry juice and cranberry extract (not just extract).
How to Choose
Always make sure to select a high-quality extract that perfectly complements the style of beer that you are brewing. As with adjuncts, you need to be careful with the amount of flavored extracts that you use, as they can easily overpower the base ingredients and lend an artificial taste to the brew. Because they are extracts, they tend to be more potent than fresh adjuncts, so care must be taken when they are added to your non-alcoholic beer.
TIP: The extracts I have used in beer and cider brewing are actually extracts designed for spirit-crafting (for flavored vodka etc). Head to your favorite brew store, and look under their distillation/spirit section for the selection of flavored extracts. You won’t generally find them under the beer section.
Other Considerations
You will want to experiment with a wide variety of different extracts, in order to achieve the balance of flavor that you are seeking. Remember, it is always best to start off with a small amount of extract, and taste test the beer as you slowly add more. After all, you do not want the flavored extracts to overpower the beer. In saying that, most of the time you will not be able to fully predict what it will taste like in the finished brew even if you do taste-test it, since the flavor of beer changes significantly after ageing. If in doubt, make a small batch of beer to experiment, and be prepared to pour it down the drain and laugh it off in case it doesn’t work out like you’d hoped.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of our beer brew ingredients 101 article. As you can see, what’s in non-alcoholic beer is actually quite simple. Beyond the basics of malt, yeast, water and hops, other ingredients are optional additives based on the style of beer or ale you are creating.
What is in non alcoholic beer – final answer
To recap what is in non alcoholic beer, the basic essentials and their roles are:
- Malt Extract (usually from Barley) – for fermentable sugars to convert into alcohol
- Water – because it is, well, a beverage
- Yeast – to facilitate the fermentation process
- Hops – for flavor and as a preservative (technically, hops is optional)
Common optional ingredients in non alcoholic beer brewing include:
- Adjuncts, such as herbs, spices, additional grains and fruits
- Sugar (fermentable and non-fermentable), for bottle conditioning and flavor
- Fining agents
- Flavored extracts
When getting started in non alcoholic beer brewing, we suggest you follow a recipe for the first few times, so you can learn the process. Then, start experimenting with smaller batches of beer with other ingredients.
Now that you know what is in non alcoholic beer, next, find out what equipment you need, in our non alcoholic beer brewing equipment 101 article.
Happy brewing!
