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Hello, hope thats not too much! I'm absolutely new to this, I'm planning to go and buy my Coopers Kit this week (with luck) but I'm keen to make a decent tasting low cal drink... or several...

Cheers

Blackie,

I'm not 100% on how low the calorie count will be, but I just made this:
Can Coopers Draught
1kg Coopers BE#1
1pkt Dry Enzyme
Cascade hops tea bag
yeast as supplied
made up to 23L

The dry enzyme helps to convert more of the sugars to alcohol and therefore reducing the calories from the sugars I think.

Cheers

Porridge

Im pretty sure the bod converts the alc. back to glucose so i don't think the dry enzyme will help as drinks of rum and such are high in cal.I'm sorry i couldn't be of more assistance

The dry enzyme is good for making diabetic beers, as I do for my dad, but I dont know about low calorie beers.

[EDIT] Just discovered while perusing for a different style to try

Diat Pils

This has nothing to do with slimming, but was originally intended for diabetics. A German style so popular in Britain that many drinkers think there is no other kind of "Pils". Carbohydrates are diminished by a very thorough fermentation, creating a relatively high content of alcohol (about 6 percent by volume) and therefore lots of calories.

Yep, alcohol has calories, no doubt. In fact, alcohol works out about 1.5 x sugar on a weight for weight basis (this isn't to say converting sugar to alcohol increases calories, btw).

For a low cal beer, you're going to have to leave stuff out - same approach as light beer. I haven't tried this, so I can't help with details.

James

This is my understanding:

Two identical beers, brewed with the same ingredients save for "dry enzyme" in one will turn out differently because the one without the enzyme will have more residual sugar.

While it's true that there's energy in alcohol, I'd be thinking that if you took a given amount of sugar and fermented it, you'd end up with less energy in the resulting alcohol due to heat, CO2, etc that is produced during fermentation.

Thus, a beer brewed with dry enzyme will -- despite having a higher alcohol content -- have fewer kilojoules than the equivalent beer brewed without the enzyme.

You could make adjustments for this extra alcohol and add slightly less (say 100g or 200g) of dextrose or glucose to your recipe.

Remember also that in a "diet" beer you want to minimise residual sugar, so don't be adding malt to the recipe, but add glucose/dex instead.

Sorry if that's not quite clear, but I've taken the day off work and am on my first beer, which is messing with my mind!

Cheers,

Oliver