costumeguy

Recipes 

So I am not GF but have a GF girlfriend. I just start brewing to learn about it all but also to make beers in styles that are not commercially available for her. So far I made the gluten free dark ale extract kit from homebrewers.com and have a variation on the jack o gluten going in the fermenter right now.

Last night I was drinking a Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier and thought that a gluten free smoked beer would work quite well. Has anyone given this a shot? How did you go about it?

jimmystewart

Recipes 

I haven't tried this myself, but I have given it some thought...

When I have the time & resources to do something like this, I would probably start with some sorghum berries, and put them in some sort of perforated tray in my gas grill with the lid closed and a tray of some sort of wood chips underneath the tray of sorghum berries and leave them in there at a low heat for an extended period of time.

Either that, or maybe buy a camping oven that runs on propane and do a similar sort of wood chips / sorghum arrangement; again, at a low temperature for a long time.

Whaddaya think? I'm sure someone out there has a better idea, and I'm interested in hearing about it too...

manoaction

Recipes 

Just use the liquid smoke drops from the grocery store, they are GF. Careful though, they are potent.

costumeguy

Recipes 

Do people think it would be possible to smoke the briesssweet sorghum extract or brown rice syrup extract? And Manoaction, have you tried this for beer?

jimmystewart

Recipes 

So, I've been pondering this more and more... As I search for a Schlenkerla to try myself... (Similar situation to the o.p.) A GF smoked beer just sounds like fun. And, the smoke in a bottle drops sound like the simplest solution, but why do things the easy way when you could do something much more complicated and impressive?

I had been digging around on the intertubes at some point, and came across the suggestion that dry media (grains, whatnot) wouldn't absorb any smoke flavor from a fire and/or smoldering stuff; whatever you wanted to absorb a smoke flavor had better be wet.... This got the ol' gears turning........

What about making a batch of instant rice (a nice, damp, gluten free media) and then smoking that? Of course, with the end result of steeping it in your water before adding sorghum syrup and proceeding as usual....

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to get the "malty" character or reddish color that I understand is the predominant feature of a typical non-GF smoked beer.

If I've been able to hide it well, I'll out myself, I've been hitting the homebrew pretty good tonight. (I do my best thinking under the influence.) I've got a Cabernet Sauvignon with some oak in it that has been in the bottle for about 4 months that is just fabulous..

Anyone care to weigh in on any of my above ideas?