Yeah, it's definitely not cheap, but it's cheaper than commercial GF beers, which are pretty mediocre in general. I'm gonna buy some, but there are definitely a lot of variables that will factor into determining whether I'll continue to use the malt. I just ordered a 25lb bucket of unhulled millet that I'm gonna malt myself to compare to the commercially malted stuff. There's a part of me that figures the commercial malt will probably be malted more optimally and I'll be able to use less to produce the same gravity beer. I'm pretty sure whole millet costs about two dollars a pound in bulk, and I can order it from a local co-op, so there's no shipping cost for that. The question for me is whether the savings is worth the extra time and expense lost on malting my own. In either case, I think I could still produce better beer at an equal or lower cost than what's available commercially. Even New Grist and Bard's Tale are about 10 dollars for a six pack, which works out to $1.66 per 12oz. If I can get four five gallon batches out of a 50lb sack of malt, that's $0.94 per 12oz for grain. The cost of hops and rice hulls bumps it up a little, but it's still less that what I'd spend on a mediocre commercial GF brew, and a lot less than the more pricey ones. The GF beer is not for me, SWMBO has celiac disease and I want to make a GF beer that I would choose to drink over non-GF beer.
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Originally Posted by No_Party
Yeah... I may bite the bullet on one, but it's a tough sell without any knowledge of how to use it properly and how it will taste.
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You might check out the PDF on gluten-free brewing here:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=11096&hl=gluten+free
You'll have to register with aussiehomebrewer to download the PDFs, but both of this guy's guides are really in depth and helpful. I'm definitely going to experiment a lot, and there are sure to be some challenges. I think the main challenge is getting the grist to gelatinization temperatures while preserving the enzymes in the malt since gelatinization temps are higher than mashing temps for GF grains. This guy grinds the grain pretty fine (more or less to flour) and then uses rice hulls to lauter. He also seems pretty adamant about doing a full protein rest to make all of the starch available to the enzymes. His process is a sort of modified decoction mash, but I plan on messing around a lot to see what works best for me.
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