I have a freind who is in recovery from alcoholism. Whenever my friends and I get together (poker night, football games, etc.) he always brings a sixer of NA beer. Since I've been brewing, I've been bringing homebrew to share with everyone. Sharing it with people who seem to like it is just as satisfying as making it and drinking it myself. Sadly, he has never been able to sample my homebrews, and I was wondering if anyone had ever developed a technique to make NA homebrew. I'm thinking that I could bottle up a few cases and bring a sixer with me when going to a buddy's house so that he can feel more involved in what everybody else is doing. As you know, sharing homebrew is more of an event than it is just drinking.

I'm curious if you just boil it after fermentation to get the alcohol out, but don't want to waste good beer if that's a stupid idea.

Any help here would be great!

People will tell you they know how to do it, but AFAIK nobody has done it at home and verified that they were successful with an accurate measurement. Mary Beth Raines attempted several techniques and all of them failed (spectacularly) to remove even most of the alcohol. She was able to remove alcohol from small samples using lab equipment but could not do it with larger quantities in her kitchen. That's the solitary example I have seen of someone trying and and measuring the result, and it was a complete failure.

I wouldn't do what you are proposing but I certainly wouldn't do it without analytically verifying that I had been successful in removing alcohol. If you know someone at a brewery with a lab, you might be able to talk them into testing a few samples for you.

On the Brew Strong Charlie Bamforth was on, this question was asked, and without hesitation he said you can't do it at home. His recommendation for making a lower alcohol beer was to just mash at 165, but that will still result in probably more alcohol than the .5% or so in NA beers.

This is kind of a bummer, but not really unexpected. I really wish there were a way that I could involve my buddy in what is becoming a major part of my life. Unfortunately, I suppose he'll have to keep drinking commercial NA beer ( of which he says there are very few options).

Thanks for such a complete answer - I really don't want to give him half-assed "NA" beer that could jepordize his recovery. It's safer to just leave it alone.

What if you just kegged wort? This might not be the best answer, but it is definitely one that would solve the alcohol problem. I am not sure if mashing at 165 and increasing the IBUs would create a similar taste to beer, but it might be possible.

The germans also make a children's beer (kinderbier) that is non-alcoholic. I had a bottle of it while I was over there and it seemed to basically be that, because it was so sweet. I am not sure if it actually contains 0% abv or not, nor am I sure how they go about making it, but that might also work.

That sounds like an idea worth shooting for (unless it tastes like crap)! I'll research kinderbier! Thanks a lot!

You may be able to distill the alcohol out of your beer and then what is left over may be na beer...or complete shit. I don't know it is just an idea.

Running it through a still and throwing out the alcohol will work, The process will take some refinement to see when you are pulling more then alcohol. A reflux still would work the best, as standard pot stills remove more then just alcohol on first pass and have to be ran through a second and even third time.

However, distilling at home is illegal in the US, you must have the proper premits to distill spirits. just wanted to make sure you know this (must brewers do, as I am sure you do).

What if you just steeped grains to keep the OG WAY WAY down. You would still get some sugars and have a little alcohol in the fermentation but even NA beers have a small small amount of alcohol.