With the warm weather finally here, we’re all spending more time on patios, at backyard BBQs, and out enjoying the long evenings. It’s the season for an easy-drinking beer in hand — but sometimes you want all the flavour without the alcohol. That’s where this month starts.
Did You Know We Sell Non-Alcoholic Beer, Cider, and Cocktails?
We’ve quietly built one of the best non-alcoholic selections around, with craft NA beer, cider, and cocktails from across Canada.
You’ll find Harmons, Nonny, One for the Road, Big Spruce, Collective Arts, Blood Brothers, Bellwoods, and Bulwark on the shelf — plus our two newest additions, Perth Brewery and Burdock Brewery.
Cans are $3.50 each, or mix and match your own 6-pack for $19.95. Not sure where to start? Stop by on a Saturday — we pour a free sample of a different non-alcoholic beer every week, so you can taste before you commit.
Making Low-Alcohol Beer at Home
Ever wonder how breweries make a beer with almost no alcohol? Most use methods that are tough to pull off in a home setup — such as vacuum distillation, which boils off alcohol at low temperatures to protect the flavour, or reverse osmosis, which filters it out through a membrane. Both need specialized equipment and a lot of fine-tuning.
While it may not be easy to reproduce true non-alcoholic beer at home, a satisfying low-alcohol beer is very doable. The simplest path is recipe design: start with a lower-gravity wort so there’s less sugar to convert, and reach for a low-attenuation yeast that leaves more residual sugar behind. That gives you a lighter beer with real body and flavour, rather than a thin, watery one.
Two yeasts worth trying are Lallemand LalBrew Windsor and WHC Low Rider. Both can’t fully ferment maltotriose, so they stop short and leave more sugar in the glass. Windsor is a medium-attenuating English ale strain, typically finishing around 70%, with a full-bodied, fruity character. Low Rider is purpose-built for the job, attenuating just 63–68% while pushing tropical and citrus hop notes — great for a session IPA or table beer.
Low Rider has another trick worth knowing about: it produces a moderate amount of glycerol. Glycerol is a slightly sweet, viscous compound that adds body and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel — exactly what low-alcohol beers tend to lack. Since the alcohol that would normally give a beer its weight just isn’t there, that extra glycerol helps keep your finished beer from tasting thin or watery.
Either yeast will help you brew something sessionable for those long summer evenings.
Reminder: Brew Day in the Capital — Saturday, June 13
Brew Day in the Capital is this Saturday, June 13th, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM in the Beer Grains parking lot.
The Ottawa Homebrew Society is putting on live brewing demos throughout the day, with four different brewers each making up a batch. It’s the perfect event if you’re curious about the hobby or looking to pick up some new tricks. And if you’ve been brewing for years, come hang out, talk shop, and meet other homebrewers from around the city. OHBS members will be on hand to chat about the club and the perks of being part of Ottawa’s homebrew community.
And because no good brew day is complete without food and beer, Beer Grains is firing up a free BBQ for everyone who comes out, and Nita Beer Company will be pouring pints.
Bring a friend, bring your questions, bring an appetite. See you Saturday!