1. It is also a kind of beer, which is fermented from four main raw materials (water, yeast, malt and hops). It should also have the flavor and chemical composition that normal beer should have. However, some blended "beer-flavored drinks" cannot be called alcohol-free beer.
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It still contains alcohol, but the degree is extremely low, within 0.5%. Therefore, alcohol-free beer still contains alcohol! Alcohol beer still contains alcohol! Alcohol-free beer still contains alcohol (the important thing is emphasized three times)! Considering that the actual alcohol content of a 9-degree (Platonic concentration of wort) on the market is about 2.5-3%, 0.5% is also a lot of alcohol.
There is still a lot of room for expanding its taste. Alcohol-free beer uses very little material in the fermentation process, and lacks the important dimension of alcohol. It is really weak to drink directly. But it also opens another window. In order to increase the drinkability of alcohol-free beer, we can make different styles of fruit beer by enhancing malt flavor or adding fruit juice, which makes it easier for women and other people who drink less.
4. healthier. Alcohol is a carcinogen announced by WHO. For alcoholics who are worried about their health, alcohol-free beer is undoubtedly a good choice to drink beer flavor and reduce alcohol intake.
A brief history of alcohol-free beer
Alcohol-free beer has a long history. During the Middle Ages, diseases were rampant in Europe, and their habit of drinking raw water made the situation worse. Europeans have gradually developed the habit of "drinking hot water". But this only refers to the water that is boiled and reused, one of which is fermented into beer, and the monastery has even become one of the core ways for the origin and spread of beer. Dr. Beer has already introduced this part of the story, so I won't repeat it in this article. But obviously, this kind of beer can't be as common as today's monastery beer, and its alcohol content is above 5%. They usually have a very low alcohol content of less than 2%.
The number of breweries in the United States during prohibition (from Dr. Bill's notes)
19-20th century, major countries in Europe and America experienced a large-scale nationwide prohibition movement. During the period of 1920- 1933, the United States imposed a very strict national prohibition on alcohol in Volstead, stipulating that drinks with alcohol content exceeding 0.5% should not be sold, which is also the origin of today's national standard labeling. This bill made the American beer industry, which was in full swing at that time, quiet down instantly, and well-known enterprises such as Budweiser were forced to transform into products that can be regarded as alcohol-free beer now.
After prohibition was lifted, non-alcoholic beer was silent.
How to brew alcohol-free beer
Alcohol-free beer is still beer, and its production still needs to be completed in the winery. It goes through almost the same process as ordinary beer production: malt crushing, sugar production, boiling, cooling, fermentation, ripening, bottling and so on. But it has another core step: there are four main ways to get rid of alcohol.
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1. distillation. This is a common way for distilled liquor manufacturers such as liquor and whisky. After the yeast fermentation process is finished, alcohol and water are mainly separated by using the difference of boiling points. However, unlike other liquors, the purpose of alcohol-free beer is to remove some alcohol, and even to harvest completely alcohol-free (0%) beer under the condition of full heating and boiling, but the disadvantage is that it will destroy the beer flavor in liquor and greatly affect the taste.
2. Low pressure distillation. When the air pressure in the distillation equipment decreases, the boiling points of alcohol and water will also decrease accordingly, which can reduce the demand for heating, and even theoretically, heating is basically unnecessary in vacuum. This method can protect a certain beer flavor, but there is no doubt that it requires high equipment.
3. Reverse osmosis. According to middle school physics knowledge, in two kinds of solutions separated by semi-permeable membrane, the solvent (such as water) always tends to permeate from the side with lower osmotic pressure/density pressure (such as tap water) to the side with higher osmotic pressure/density pressure (such as brine), and finally the liquid levels on both sides are inconsistent. If pressure is applied to one side of a high-density liquid, reverse osmosis will occur. Using this characteristic, wort can be purified in industrial production, alcohol and water (solvent) can be reduced, and then alcohol-free beer can be obtained by adding water. In this way, the beer flavor damage is the lowest, but the equipment requirements are also very high.
Step 4 pour water. In order to improve efficiency, some industrial beer producers often adopt the method of fermentation to a higher level and then dilution to obtain ordinary products. To some extent, it is not an exaggeration to call it "water beer". If you continue this step, of course, you can get a "water beer" without alcohol or low alcohol. This way is the simplest and the cost is extremely low, but there is no doubt that it is hard to call it "beer" in the end.
What style of non-alcoholic beer?
The author recently evaluated some common alcohol-free beer, and its development ideas mainly include the following points.
1. expansion of beer based on wheat. The biggest feature of wheat beer is the malt/bread flavor brought by wheat protein and the unique phenols and esters of yeast fermentation, and alcohol is not a selling point. Therefore, it is a good choice to brew alcohol-free beer.
2. Based on IPA expansion. In the booming IPA field, the popularity of conversation is less than 2.8%, and the development speed is amazing. It is appropriate to further reduce the degree, while maintaining a large number of hops flavor, so that it is similar to the effect of "hops water." The author believes that this will be a trend with great potential.