🍺 Top-down Brew: Leichtbier

Recipe Variables

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Variations

For steeped grains plus malt extract:

  • Delete the malt lines.
  • For liquid malt extract, add sugar: Liquid pilsner or light malt extract, 100, 5, 76
  • For dry malt extract, add sugar: Dry pilsner or light malt extract, 100, 3.5, 96

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Results

Notes

2021 BJCP 5A - Leichtbier characteristic ingredients: "Continental Pils malt. German lager yeast. Traditional German hops."

Leichtbier is a relatively new low alcohol style for health conscious drinkers. This category may also include mixed beers such as radler and shandy.

Vital statistics: IBU: 15 - 28, SRM: 1.5 - 4, OG: 1.026 - 1.034, FG: 1.006 - 1.010, ABV: 2.4% - 3.6%

Continental pilsner malt is the primary malt. Strong suggests Carahell from 5% to 15%, with the high end being for non-alcoholic beers. Light crystal malts such as crystal 10L are suitable. Other specialty malt possibilities are Carapils/carafoam (5 to 12%), Vienna (14 to 40%), or biscuit malt (7 to 9%). Use restraint. Only one or two specialty malts are needed.

The hops should be German or continental European varieties, like Hallertau, Saaz, Tettnang, and Hersbrucker. American hops bred from Hallertau like Mount Hood are also acceptable.

The yeast should be a clean fermenting lager yeast. Diacetyl is undesirable, so steps that minimize diacetyl like a diacetyl rest are recommended.

Sources

Beer-analytics.com Leichtbier analysis

Strong, G. (2021, January-February). Leichtbier: Light in alcohol, not flavor. Brew Your Own, p. 24 - 26.