German brewing in the 1970’s – low-alcohol beer

Here’s another test of your patience – a look at low-alcohol beer. Always a favourite among drinkers.

The first sentence is certainly true:

“Although in West Germany there is a trend to produce beers with lower original gravity, it is not expected that hop consumption will decrease. This trend has been caused by the new laws requiring a lower blood alcohol concentration but it has also been recognized that people will consume higher quantities of liquids to gain a particular blood alcohol concentration. It has been seen that in Great Britain people accept beers with original gravities as low as 8.5-9.5% Plato and after the introduction of the new traffic laws some breweries tried to put on the market the so-called 'Schankbiere' with an original gravity of 7-8% Plato. These efforts were not very successful. This comment also applies to trials to reduce the alcohol content of normally produced beers from 3.8 % (w/w) to 1.5 and 0.5 % (w/w) alcohol by various means. The following procedures are available to reduce the alcohol content of beer:

(a) Boiling of the fermented beer under atmospheric pressure.
(b) Removal of alcohol from the fermented beer by vacuum distillation at temperatures around 50°C.
(c) Use of reverse osmosis, whereby it is possible to dealcoholize the beer totally without heating.

The last-mentioned procedure has the least effect on other beer constituents, because no increased temperature is needed and the resulting product has an acceptable taste. With the two procedures first mentioned the content of hydroxymethylfurfural and other intermediates of the Mail lard reaction is increased, caused by the use of higher temperatures. None of these products is expected to have much success on the market.”
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 83, Issue 1, March-April 1977, page 74.

Though the first sentence is true not in the way the author intended. Pretty sure he’s talking about a trend towards low-alcohol types of beer. Whereas what I’ve observed is a lowering of gravities which offsets an increase in attenuation, leaving the ABV the same. Meaning German beers are getting drier and more highly-attenuated.

The quantities of Schankbier are tiny and falling. The vast majority of it is Berliner Weisse, a style which is under threat. There are a few low-gravity Hefeweizens around, but the amount brewed of these beers isn’t significant.

I’m trying to think if I’ve ever had an alcohol-reduced beer that tasted good. Or even like beer. Can’t recall one. Then again, I rarely drink them. In fact it’s ages since I drank one voluntarily - the last ones were while judging competitions.

Let’s see what Briggs has to say about low-alcohol beer:

"The production of alcohol-free and low-alcohol beers has a long history and patents on the processes involved go back over 100 years. Marketing and sale of these beers has varied in intensity throughout this period. Low-alcohol beers were produced in considerable volume at the time of the First and Second World Wars as a result of the shortage of raw materials and prohibition in the USA from 1919 to 1933 stimulated production. There has been renewed interest, since about 1978, because of legislation relating to the driving of motor vehicles and health considerations leading to some beliefs in the advantages of drinking less alcohol. There is also a trade in the export of non-alcoholic beer to Islamic countries where the sale of alcohol is banned. These situations lead to the development of a healthy market and most major brewers included low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers in their product portfolios. The market for these beers has recently come under pressure both from aggressive marketing from soft drink companies and from so-called `alcopops' in which alcohol is mixed with some type of fruit extract. This has led to brand losses and there are now fewer types of beer available. However the competition has resulted in marked flavour improvements in those brands which have survived. In 1992, in Europe, the market for low-alcohol beer was 4% of the total alcoholic drinks market but it has shown no growth since this time."
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 582.

Briggs lists seven methods of alcohol reduction rather than three:

“Vacuum distillation
In this process (Regan, 1990), the beer to be de-alcoholized is heated to 50º C (122º F) in a plate heat exchanger and is then de-esterified under high vacuum.”
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 582.

“Vacuum evaporation
This process (Attenborough, 1988; Narziss et al., 1992; Regan, 1990) has developed from considering the difficulties of vacuum distillation. The temperatures used are lower than with vacuum distillation and the residence time under evaporation is less.”
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 583.

“Dialysis
In this method (Attenborough 1988; Niefind, 1982; Regan, 1990) the alcohol is removed by pumping beer through a membrane at a pressure of just over 2 bar (30 lb./in.2). The membrane is normally a hollow fibre with a very thin wall.”
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 583.

“Reverse osmosis
This process uses filtration at high pressure (30 to 60 bar) through a semipermeable membrane. The membranes are made of cellulose acetate, nylon or other polymers and allow the passage of small molecules such as water and ethanol and hold back the larger molecules. The high pressure used forces the water and alcohol against the natural osmotic pressure of the beer through the membrane.”
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, pages 583 - 584.

“Control of mashing
Clearly, if mashing can be performed to produce a wort of low fermentability then there is the possibility of fermenting this wort to yield a beer of low alcohol content (Muller, 1990). These methods were formerly associated with intensely `worty' flavours in the resultant beers which were cloying and not `moreish'.”
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 584.

“Control of fermentation
The essence of these methods is to lower ethanol production by restricting fermentation. This can be done by stopping yeast activity before fermentation is complete, by using a special strain of yeast, by temperature control, or by controlling contact time of the yeast with wort.”
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 584.

“Use of spent grains
These methods (Attenborough, 1988) utilize spent grains to produce worts of low fermentability. The grains can simply be extracted with water or by acid hydrolysis or can be extrusion cooked. Fermentation is normally at a gravity of 8ºP (32º Sacch). Again, these beers require long maturation times (at least 14 days) to yield acceptable flavours.
"Brewing Science and Practice" by Dennis E. Briggs, Chris A. Boulton, Peter A. Brookes and Roger Stevens, 2000, page 585.

Not sure I fancy beer that’s been through any of those processes. Using spent grain sounds particularly cheap and nasty.

Wort production next.