Synapsis

Recipes 

I'm fairly new to homebrewing and to the website, and I have a couple of questions about a possible paleo beer. I think paleo has been explained a little bit on a few other threads, but basically the major issue with brewing a paleo beer is that I can't have any grains. Does anyone know of a good substitute for grains in brewing?

After looking around at the site, some of the ideas I've come up with that may fit the bill...

• Doing a cider of some sort using fresh apples and honey to sweeten.
• I think I could get away with using natural Sorghum and Sorghum Syrup, but I've never used those in a recipes before. I saw a pumpkin recipe that sounded delicious, but it called for baking the Sorghum. Not sure what the natural state of Sorghum is, but it sounds like a grain.
• I could do a mead or wine, but I'm really more of a beer person.
• I really like the idea of a pumpkin beer. Can I do a beer with no grains and pumpkin?

If there's already an active thread that discusses these issues, I would really appreciate a link.

There are 2 worst case scenarios in my opinion for not finding any substitutes, and neither is that terrible. The first is that I just brew the beer I like and have it on my cheat days. The second is that I just try a little bit of chemistry and see what I get. Any suggestions or hints would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

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The guy who taught me and my buddies to brew was a chemical engineer and always used to chuckle and say, "Boys, brewing beer is simply chemistry with a purpose."

ABrewingApe

Recipes 

Considered lambics and meads, perhaps? You don't get more Stone Age than leaving a bucket of fruit squish or honey water around until magic (i.e. wild yeast) turns it into booze.

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mloster

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Hey. I'm actually paleo too so it's nice to have a fellow paleo here. Check out my stout that I brewed http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/gf-american-stout-264594/ It's a little involved if you've never brewed anything before. I'd suggest edwort's apfelwein as a starter. I brewed a modified pumpkin spice which I tried for the first time a few hours ago. For that, I'd suggest this recipe here http://brew.dkershner.com/2009/gluten-free-pumpkin-spice-ale/ It's pretty tasty, but, as a personal note, I don't do great with sorghum. I don't get bloated like I do with sorghum, but I get a different sort of drunk. Look in the sticky about malting your own gf grains and check out some of my other questions/posts. Personally, I seem to do well with malted buckwheat, but it is a lot more work, especially for your first brew. I'm with you though. I'm still learning but if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

dramirezpa

Recipes 

just a thought.....

If you don't have an allergy to grains or celiac, and are just doing this as a diet because it feels good to you.

then what is it about converting grain starches to sugars and the converting those sugars to alcohol that is different than taking other starches and converting them to sugar and then converting them to alcohol?

Synapsis

Recipes 

@dramirezpa To be honest, for mre it's really more of an experiment. I can tell you that eating different starches makes me feel totally different. So, I'm really trying to see if brewing a different type of beer makes me feel any different.

To the rest of you, thanks for the info. If I try anything, I'll make sure to post it here.

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The guy who taught me and my buddies to brew was a chemical engineer and always used to chuckle and say, "Boys, brewing beer is simply chemistry with a purpose."

JonM

Recipes 

+1 to EdWort's apfelwein.

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Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

dramirezpa

Recipes 

I'm not trying to be an instigator, just curious. If your mash passes the iodine test there are no starches in the wort, right?

KevinM

Recipes 

Mead, wine, cider. Honey & fruit.
Sorghum, millet, rice, which we gluten free brewers use are grains. Thus off limits.

In order to convert any other item, including grain, into sugar, you have to have enzymes. Ideally both alpha and beta (and gamma?) enzymes. We gluten free people have issues sourcing the enzymes, (alpha can be found, beta, not so much.)

It's possible to use pumpkin or sweet potato and convert those to sugar. You may need to include an enzyme amount. This would usually be from grain. There are a lot of articles this time of month about pumpkin beer and it's history.
There's pumpkin beer, which is made from pumpkin, but may be more akin to a wine.
And then there's pumpkin beer that people are more familiar with which may not contain any pumpkin at all. Just spice that makes people think of pumpkin pie.
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/09/pumpkin-beers-colonial-necessity-to-seasonal-treat-beer-history-brewing.html
This includes links to old books that reference pumpkin beer made from only pumpkin. Including a book from the 80's that references an article from 1771 saying to juice a pumpkin, boil the juice add hops and ferment like malt.

Which reminds me that I need to juice my pie pumpkin to flavor my GF spiced beer.

If you truly want to go paleolithic. Get a dried, hollowed out gourd, or cured animal skin as a pouch, add squished fruit, and let it naturally ferment.

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Primary: Sake
Secondary: GF Czech Lager
Waiting to be kegged, Italian Primitivo
Kegged&Ready: GF Orange&Coriander, GF Honey Lager, GF chocolate ale, GF English ale, Island mist (zinfandel), Island mist (cbry malbec).
Bottled: Infected Mead, Dry Hard ciders, Accidental Sorghumwine, various unnamed.