Hello! I'm the homebrewer that Kristine referred to earlier. I've brewed two batches of lc beer. Both turned out very good. Judging by other beers final gravities and carb content, I'd guess my beer would contain about 5-7 carbs per 12 oz. Twice as much as the commercial lc beers. I'd rather have 1 these than 2 of that crap.

I start from scratch using all grain, so some of this information will not apply to extract brewers. I think you can still brew a good lc beer using extract.

My recipe is as follows:

10 gallons Low Carb beer

14# Maris Otter pale malt
5.5 oz. Cascade hops (5.8 alpha)
London Weyeast

I mashed the grain using rests at 140 (15 min), 148 (60 min), and 162 (15 min). This is a little more invovled than a one step mash, but I believe this helped convert more starch to sugar.

I used a 60 minute boil. 2 oz of the hops were added at the start. I added 1.75 oz with 15 minutes left, along with a lttle Irish moss (for clarity). I used the remaining hops after I'd cooled the wort to about 180 degrees to give it a nice hop nose.

The original gravity was 1.039 and the initial final gravity 1.012. Then I racked the beer and added 3 Beano tablets to each carboy. The enzyme in Beano did a nice job of bringing the gravity down to 1.004. It will ferment long that normal (about 2 weeks total). Some say to ferment at a little higher than normal temperature. I lke to keep my temp below 70 to prevent getting a funky taste. You can add the Beano at the time you pitch the yeast if you wish. I just wanted to see how much more it would ferment the beer. I guess that you could also do it during mashing.

A few thoughts....

This is a smaller beer than I would normally brew. My normal pale ale recipe calls for a grain bill of over 18 pounds and a lot more hops. Scale back your hops accordingly. At a final gravity of 1.004, overhopping you bittering hops will make it very bitter. I will try dry hopping next batch.

If you extract brew, I'd start at about 3.5-4 pounds of a light extract. You can add a little honey and roasted barley if you wish. Both are very fermentable. Stay away from crystal malts as they don't ferment as well.

I read an article about adding Splenda to the beer to get back some mouth feel, so I tied it. They recommended 1.5 cups for 5 gallons. I put 1 cup in my 5 gallon keg. Way too sweet for me. I doubt if I will do it again. The untreated keg was much better.

Remember, this is a "lighter" version of a normal homebrew. I didn't realize how light it was until, at a brew club meeting, I tasted mine after tasting other homebrews. It is however much better than anything available commercially. I'm going to work on some ideas in future batches.

Good luck and enjoy!

Bruce (Brews)