How Berkeley Yeast LNA Strains Improve Your Non-Alc Beers

Photography courtesy of Berkeley Yeast

Berkeley Yeast describes its non-alc series of yeast strains as products “designed to make non-alcoholic beer that tastes like beer.” To do that, they’ve released two strains: NA Classic™ and NA Cabana™.

“Both strains are opening new possibilities to create low- and no-alc beers that taste like beer,” Harris says.

These strains create more beer notes and make beer that’s less wort character,

Nick Harris - Berkeley Yeast

The NA Classic strain promises to have all the beer qualities you expect, as well as the classic hop character to match. NA Cabana produces candied apricots, passionfruit, and citrus notes and flavors that “will resonate with any craft beer drinker.” These are things that are easier said than done with NA beers.

“It’s difficult to craft a low- and no-alc beer. Often they will be perceived as being worty or have wort-like off-flavors,” Harris says. “Another issue for making a delicious low- and no-alc beer is creating beer-ness—making something that tastes like beer. Because you don’t have a lot of fermentation, the yeast isn’t producing a lot of compounds that give beer their flavors.”

The Berkeley Yeast LNA strains create the beer-like flavors and aromas that beer drinkers expect. The strains do not consume maltose and maltotriose and, thus, won’t produce alcohol. So if you shoot for a starting gravity of around five Plato—and Harris says with these, you want to start with a lower starting Plato or specific gravity—you will get a beer at about 0.5% ABV.

“These strains create more beer notes and make beer that’s less wort character,” Harris says.

The Berkeley Yeast co-founder adds that each strain brings an element to beer you won’t traditionally find in other NA beers.

“It’s hard to achieve the hop character consumers are most interested in in their beer,” he says. “Because [with] no-alc, the hop character is different and makes it seem like hop water. LNA Classic brings a familiar hoppy character you’re used to in a craft beer.”

Harris adds, “LNA Classic fills in these hoppy gaps. It’s a good foundation for making LNA beer like IPAs, pale ales, even lagers.”

The NA Cabana strain produces complex tropical and stone fruit notes.

“It’s a great strain for making a tropical IPA or pale ale where you want tropical fruit complexity,” Harris says. “Make a clear beer, a hazy, or if you want to make a juicy, that’s the yeast strain to do that.”

Bledsoe says these strains might top the list of all your options to make NA beer.

“They are the most approachable way for brewers to start to learn about low- and non-alcoholic beer making,” he says.

Photography courtesy of White Labs

There’s much to consider when using these LNA strains, especially since each brewery setup and operation will differ. But Harris says the key focus is looking at your real degree of fermentation, or RDF.

By limiting the overall sugar, you can let it ferment more and still maintain the flavor you want consumers to have.

Anthony Bledsoe - Berkeley Yeast

“Around eighteen percent has had success for us,” Harris says. “That will lead to a less fermentable wort stream and a higher Plato start, around five Plato.”

The key is to get a low starting gravity. Certain variables may limit a brewhouse—grain bill sizes needed for mash tun, size of lauter tun—but can be neutralized with rice hulls or mashing for zero minutes at 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

“That will achieve a low amount of fermentation,” Harris says. “But you’ll have less beer character and might need to fill in the gaps of ingredients.”

On one hand, if you have a low degree of fermentation, you won’t overshoot your ABV target. On the other hand, if you mash longer at a lower temperature, you’ll have more fermentable wort, a higher degree of fermentation, and more beer-flavored beer, but you might overshoot your starting gravity target.

The smaller grain mass can lead to other issues.

“You have a smaller amount of buffering, and the pH can adjust a lot when sparging,” Harris says. “If you go too low in the mash, it can [negatively] affect the beer.”

With so much to consider when brewing LNA, Harris has some advice.

“It will require experimentation to dial in the process,” he says. “Start with a good base beer without additions. One grain, one hop, would be a great example.”

Harris adds, “Classic and Cabana are great jumping-off points. But there are so many new tools, parameters, and ingredients to manipulate to achieve what you’re looking for.”

Bledsoe notes that if you pull off an existing wort stream and pitch the yeast, you can get a basic understanding of how it ferments and the flavors it creates.

“Limited fermentation creates limited alcohol, and by doing so, you limit the flavor profile,” Bledsoe says. “By limiting the overall sugar, you can let it ferment more and still maintain the flavor you want consumers to have.”

Photography courtesy of Berkeley Yeast

For one, it’s much more cost-effective. Other methods, like vacuum distillation and membrane filtration, have their benefits, but those can sometimes remove compounds that make it taste like beer, require more equipment in your brewhouse, and cost a chunk of cash.

“A lot of the other approaches are heavily capital dependent,” Bledsoe says. “A yeast strain is not. And you don’t have to commit to a lot.”

Bledsoe adds, “These low- and no-alc [yeast strains] can be small scale—think carboy where you pull off wort and try the yeast with that. That’s how I think these yeast strains come into the picture.”

Bledsoe says equipment for removing alcohol mechanically can start at several hundred thousand dollars and go up to half a million or more to scale up.

“If you want any scale, you’re talking spending $1 million plus, depending on the scale,” Bledsoe says. “Having that level of commitment before prototyping takes a special person to commit to that.”

If you already have vacuum distillation in your facility, Harris says that adding the LNA strains can complement that process.

It allows brewers to churn out NA beer that tastes like craft beer.

Nick Harris - Berkeley Yeast

The yeast is similar to strains used to produce alcohol in beer—treat them the same way, though they don’t ferment as much because they only ferment monosaccharides like dextrose. Berkeley Yeast recommends a dosage rate of 1.5 million cells per degree Plato.

“These strains are robust and awesome … and very easy to use,” Harris says. “It allows brewers to churn out NA beer that tastes like craft beer.”

Harris adds, “We propagate them the same way with slight changes. That [dosage rate] is a standard lager rate. It should get you a fast fermentation and get out of the danger zone faster.”

Photography courtesy of Omega Yeast

Harris says that a higher pitch rate will cause faster fermentation and faster crashes and alleviate risk. Basically, get in, get out.

“You have to be very careful with microbial contamination,” Harris says. “To mitigate risk, have a fast rate of fermentation, and lower residence time at fermentation temp.”

Another thing to always be aware of is the pH.

“Keep it as low as possible,” Harris says.

Also, you will need to decrease your microbial load.

“If you’re dry hopping, hops have bacteria on them; if you add that to fermentation temps, you increase risk,” Harris says. “You can mitigate that by adding hops to the hot side or crash right after fermentation and add hops cold.”

Bledsoe adds that once you get to conditioning, the carbonation levels are slightly different from alcoholic beers.

“Carbonate as high as your can seams will allow,” Bledsoe says. “It’s a helpful component of drinkability in NA products.”

But the most important consideration with Berkeley Yeast’s LNA strains comes right at packaging. Berkeley Yeast emphasizes the need for pasteurization.

“We require that the products produced with our yeast are tunnel pasteurized,” Harris says. “Tunnel pasteurization is a sure way to make a safe product.”

He adds, “Other additives like preservatives haven’t been worked out yet. Until we can verify, [pasteurizing] is the safest way. As time goes on, there may be a time when we shift recommendations.”

Harris says to work with a processing authority that can provide recommendations for making a safe product.

“When you have a low-ABV product with sugar left behind, things can grow,” Harris says. “If you don’t have a tunnel pasteurizer, there are a number of contract brewers that offer that because NA beers are increasing in demand.”

Harris points to Bledsoe as the expert on creating a dynamic recipe that complements the LNA yeast strains.

There’s a lot of things you can do to end up making up an amazing product.

Anthony Bledsoe - Berkeley Yeast

“In terms of designing recipes, I think of failing fast,” Bledsoe says. “Brewers have thousands upon thousands of reps on making alcoholic beer and helping create them, but no- and low[-alcohol] beer is a wholly different thing. A lot of things that would work for alcoholic beers won’t work for NA beers.”

Bledsoe advises failing quickly and getting as many reps as possible to create the levers for a great product.

“There are no silver bullets when creating NA beers,” he says. “There’s a lot of things you can do to end up making up an amazing product.”

Bledsoe feels a good range to shoot for is five to eight Plato and a real degree of fermentation (RDF) from ten percent to twenty-five percent.

“If you are at the lower end of Plato, be at the higher end of the RDF,” Bledsoe says. “If you’re on the higher end of the Plato, be at the lower end of the RDF.”

Bledsoe suggests mashing for a shorter time and at a higher temperature than normal. The rest of the hot side process is similar to brewing—boil, whirlpool, crash, etc. You use less hops, but the hot side hops will be similar to regular beer.

“Then pitch the yeast at normal ale temps. Your beer will finish in four-ish days, and then you’re cool,” Bledsoe says.

For hops, Bledsoe leans toward the “less is more” approach for NA beers.

“The instincts brewers have is all within the context of alcoholic beers,” says Bledsoe, noting the desire to add more hops when in doubt. “But lower BUs are preferable in NA beers.”

He says there are more ways to incorporate hops later in the brew process.

“Under twenty BUs is a target, even in an IPA NA product,” Bledsoe says. “You can use downstream products … that help with foam, dial in bitterness, and give you multiple positive factors.”

For dry hopping, Bledsoe says NA beer tends to replicate hop water, so the LNA strains allow for the dry hop to emulate more of a beer profile.

When dialing in your recipe, one significant difference between alcoholic beers and NA beers is acid and pH.

“NA beer for safety and drinkability is much better at a lower pH,” Bledsoe says. “The lower the pH, the better food safety is, and it fills an area for mouthfeel.”

He adds, “It’s hard to overstate the impact ethanol has on mouthfeel and overall experience. You have to fill it in with something of interest to the consumer. Understanding pH and which acids you use … pay special importance to [those].”

Options to improve the pH include lactic acid, phosphoric acid, citric acid, and malic acid.

“You can drive acid down with all of them,” Bledsoe says. “In combination, it helps change the product in favorable ways.”

Bledsoe says you can add color to the beer when it is in the brite tank.

“Organize malt bill to hit flavor, then downstream add color,” he says. “There are ways to add color while maintaining flavor. Don’t be afraid to experiment the same way—puree, juice, acids, different sugars [post fermentation, since you’ll pasteurize].”

He adds that there are a lot of salt additions you can inject to increase flavor and mouthfeel.

The short answer is yes.

It doesn’t take a lot of capital to get this started.

Nick Harris - Berkeley Yeast

Harris says he has seen large-scale operations as well as smaller brewhouses applying LNA yeast strains and LNA beers to their brew calendar.

“The few types we’ve seen are breweries doing these in-house with tunnel pasteurization, breweries in the process of getting one, or breweries scaling up to contract facility,” Harris says. “Any brewery can do this but [they] need the ability to pasteurize packaged beers.”

Harris says that as long as you can pasteurize, any brewery can do it.

“It doesn’t take a lot of capital to get this started.”

Bledsoe says the LNA strains suit any brewery looking to make low- to no-alc products.

“We can scale from five to four hundred barrels,” Bledsoe says. “Yeast scales the same and will deliver the same result.”

Harris notes that while craft beer sales are down, LNA product sales are up.

“It is one of the only segments in the fermented beverage space that is growing and growing rapidly,” says Harris, noting Athletic as a top-selling product at grocery stores. “Americans are seeking LNA products. They are aiming to drink less alcohol in general. So producing a great LNA beer is exactly what is needed to satisfy that consumer.”

But that LNA beer has to be of high quality. That’s where the LNA yeast strains at Berkeley Yeast come into play.

“One thing consumers miss the most is flavor and variety of options,” Harris says. “So creating strains like these can address both of those needs—creating LNA beer that tastes great and a variety of options that consumers will find very satisfying.”