Brewing without hops? | Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead ...

Brewing without hops?
Member
I know this question has probably been asked a few times but hopefully this is a different take on it.
I know you can brew without hops and use herbs ala gruit but my question is can you brew without any type of bittering agent? I would assume that using just grains and some sort of LME/DME along with yeast would be sufficient in creating an alcoholic beverage or am I missing something that yeast adds to the process in respect to alcohol?
I know it's probably a weird question but I like to experiment and was curious if I was thinking correctly?
Well-Known Member
You'd get an alcoholic fluid, I'm not sure I'd call something that sickly-sweet, with all the residual sugars from the malt and absolutely nothing bitter (or sour) to counter them, a beverage per se. If you mashed really low and really long, shot for relatively low gravity, and fermented with a very high-attenuating yeast, maybe you could achieve something approaching a macro lager in terms of flavor profile, but I'm not sure why you'd bother.
5 Gallon Partial-Something Brewer
I have not tried a hopless malt with alcohol, but I have had many hopless malts without alcohol. Sometimes called malt tea or malt soft drinks. Those have been about as sweet as colas. I suspect fermentation would make them less sweet, though perceptually sweeter than a bittered malt. Seems like a worthwhile experiment. If so, then I'd like to taste a series of a single malt with different yeasts.
Member
Thanks guys, the tea and soft drink references are along the lines of what I was thinking. Specifically a root beer type soft drink or iced tea style alcoholic beverage I figured the sweetness would go well with both of these...may have to do some small batch experiments!