Please post a verified "decent" Gluten Free recipe?

I've searched the forums and found some good starting points, but very few of those who set out to make a Gluten Free beer came back and posted the results, which is not a terrific selling point for the recipes.

I'd like to make a "decent" Gluten Free beer for my little sister for Christmas so my time is very short. I'm think I'm looking for a pale ale taste, and I need an extract recipe with some flavoring grains, I guess. She's not a picky beer drinker, but since she's got celiac it's also been a long time since she had a good beer, period.

Thanks in advance!

I do not have any but I thought I would give your post a BUMP since it is a good cause!

Good luck.


oh, wait, I think I recall a thread somewhere on here where GF recipes were being discussed to help a member of this board (brewpastor I believe)who thought he may be gluten intolerant. I think the title had the words "a modest proposal for..."

I have not tried this recipe but found it here. On www.brewingwithbriess.com



Ingredients
7.5 lbs BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup 45 DE High Maltose
1 oz Cascade Hops (6.5% AA) (Beginning of boil)
0.5 oz Cascade Hops (6.5% AA) (5 minutes before end of boil)
1 oz Cascade Hops (6.5% AA) ( End of boil)
1 oz Cascade Hops (6.5% AA) ( Dry hop)
2 pkgs Nottingham Dry Ale Yeast or Wyeast 1272GF Yeast
1 cup Honey (Bottling)
Brewing Procedures

1. Mix BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup and water and bring to a boil.
2. Add bittering hops and boil for 40 minutes.
3. Add remaining hops according to schedule.
4. Quickly chill wort and pitch yeast.

Fermentation

1. Primary: 1.5 weeks at 65-70° F
2. Add dry hops after primary fermentation.
3. Bottle condition with honey.

Notes

1. Original Gravity: 1.056
2. Final Gravity: 1.016
3. Alcohol by vol: 5.2%
4. IBU: 37

I've done one batch of "Simple Simon Gluten Free Sorghum Beer" and it was drinkable. The friend I made it for liked it and was thrilled to have a beer she could drink.

The finish is an amber beer with light carbonation and head.

For a 5 gallon batch:
7 lbs BriesSweet White Sorghum Syrup (low boil, 60 minutes)
2 oz SAAZ 3.5% AA Hop Plug 60 min
12 oz honey (at end of boil)
Nottingham Ale Yeast (1 pack)
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming
Primary fermentation: 5 days at 68F
Secondary fermentation: 2 weeks at 45F
Age in bottles 4 weeks

In my opinion, the overall taste is too sweet and it is a bit like cider. It needs more hops. I'll increase the recipe to 3-4 oz total. I'm also planning on using 1 lb of malted buckwheat to add an earthier, nuttier flavor to offset the sweetness and improve head retention.

But first, I'm going to try a dark, stout beer from sorghum molasses.

Best of luck.

I've done one batch of "Simple Simon Gluten Free Sorghum Beer" and it was drinkable. The friend I made it for liked it and was thrilled to have a beer she could drink.

The finish is an amber beer with light carbonation and head.

For a 5 gallon batch:
7 lbs BriesSweet White Sorghum Syrup (low boil, 60 minutes)
2 oz SAAZ 3.5% AA Hop Plug 60 min
12 oz honey (at end of boil)
Nottingham Ale Yeast (1 pack)
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming
Primary fermentation: 5 days at 68F
Secondary fermentation: 2 weeks at 45F
Age in bottles 4 weeks

In my opinion, the overall taste is too sweet and it is a bit like cider. It needs more hops. I'll increase the recipe to 3-4 oz total. The recipe above from Bries validates this thinking. I'm also planning on using 1 lb of malted buckwheat to add an earthier, nuttier flavor to offset the sweetness and improve head retention.

But first, I'm going to try a dark, stout beer from sorghum molasses.

Best of luck.

Cascadie,

My wife is gluten intollerant too. I've recently brewed a cider for her. There are quite a few recipes out there for them.

I used the following:

10 cans (from the freezer section) of Berry Juice concentrate. The cheap stuff. I was looking for apple juice initially, but thought the berry flavoring would provide an interesting zing.
2 gallons of the best apple juice I could find. No preservatives.
5 cinammon sticks
15 cloves (I boiled the cinammon and cloves in 2 quarts of water for 20 min, then added the spicy broth to the concentrate and apple juice wort.)
You don't need to boil the wort. Just make sure all the ingredients have disolved thoroughly.

Cool with 3 more gallons of water.

My OG was 1.086
I used Cry Havoc yeast.
FG was 1.054

The final cider is pretty darn good, and my celiac stricken wife gets to enjoy a homebrew.

LM

Hey, I know this thread is way dead, but thought I'd post my recipe. I used:

8lbs sorghum malt extract
1.5oz goldings (bitter)
1 oz goldings (finish)
Windsor Ale yeast

Nothing fancy, but a first shot at homebrew for a number of friends who are celiac.

My hope was to malt some millet to add body (my homebrew store owner said the sorghum left it kind of without) but that didn't turn out. When I was in Ghana there was a fantastic millet beer called pito that I think with some work could be adapted and turned into something interesting that-while not exactly like a barley beer-would be still be pretty tasty. Hopefully following experiments with the millet malting will turn out better.

@MattTheBlack; This thread will never be dead. It just goes flat from time to time. Thanks for the update.

Try malting some buckwheat. It helps. How to: http://www.strangebrew.ca/Drew/buckwheat.html Groats can be found at Whole Foods, or similar.

Also, this thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/gluten-free-wit-143266/index3.html) has other input on the subject.


gm

It seams to me that an obvious addition to any Gluten Free recipe that lacked body would be some Gluten Free Oats. You can buy those in a lot of places that have GF products.

Would have to cook them first if they aren't instant but I still think that could be made to work even in an extract beer. Might even be able to use them raw if only using for improving body. Toasting them could provide some further flavors as well.

Another source of some interesting flavors could be the candy syrups detailed here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/

There is also the experimental stuff using White Labs Clarity-ferm enzymes to modify gluten present in real beer into something else. If the celiac you are making it for is willing to take that risk... Might even be a good way to just use some crystals or other specialty grains with the sorghum. It would also reduce the risk of using normal non-GF oats. Oats don't have gluten but they are at risk of contamination from wheat.

Just some thoughts.

@gwadem--I though about buckwheat and definitely want to give it a try, but thought I'd try millet first to emulate the west African beer. I do have some buckwheat that my wife grew in the garden, though, so that's for the next batch. Thanks for the malting instructions!

@foltster--My local homebrew store has malted and unmalted oats, which could be a good substitute. I don't think any of the celiacs I know are so intolerant they keep a totally wheat-free kitchen, but I'll have to ask them about risks if it is 'contaminated.'

Thanks for the tips! I'll keep you updated on the progress of the all-sorghum beer and future experiments.