Gluten Free recipe suggestions

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

PSmurf78

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
113
Reaction score
0
Location
City
Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for awhile, and have used tips on some strong ales, IPA's etc from this site..

Anyways, recently, a friend of mine found out that he has to cut back on his gluten intake. The sad thing is we've shared a love for strong dark beers such as Great Divides yeti imperial stout, some of russian rivers beers, Stone Brewery etc...

I've been looking around but I haven't found any really good sounding dark gluten free beers. So I thought I'd try to make one.

The first attempt will be a smaller batch, probably 2.5-3 gallons worth.

Here's what I was thinking so far; please provide opinions/suggestions/comments/etc.. :)


5 lbs of sorghum extract
1.25 lbs GF oats tasted for 20-30 min at 350 degrees prior to going into the wort
1 lb Quiona toasted for 2-3 hrs at 350 degrees
1 Pint Molasses
8 Oz Lactose

1/2 Oz Horizon @ 60 Min
1/2 Oz Sterling @ 60 Min
1/2 Oz Willamette @ 60 Min

1/2 Oz Horizon @ 2 Min
1/2 Oz Sterling @ 2 Min
1/2 Oz Willamette @ 2 Min

I would also be using 2 pkg's of DanStars Nottinghams yeast.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions on changes?
 
I've never used molasses. Is 1 pint a lot for 3 gallons? Other than that, the recipe sounds good to me. I'd love to hear how it turns out, since my gf has celiac and I love dark beer.
 
I'm starting to sound like a broken record.. If you roast your grains into chocolate malt territory then you should be fine, otherwise you're just gonna extract a bunch of starch/ haze into your wort and risk infection (that's my experience.)
On that note, I have personally found highly roasted quinoa to be objectionable. I would suggest millet if you can find it. Buckwheat is kinda nice roasted as well. Go easy on the roasted grains/ molasses, etc as the flavours will be quite strong.
 
I've seen millet available, so that would be an easy substitute. I could also pull back a bit on the molasses.

I got the oats today, so I'll probably try brewing this up this weekend, depending if I can free up one of my buckets (my 90 min ipa and arrogant bastard clones are taking forever).
 
So brewed up last night, making about a 3-3.5 gallon batch. It sure smelled good at the end, but the begining was a little suspect :).

  • 3 gallons H20
  • 7 Lbs sorghum extract
  • .75 lb toasted GF oats (browned marshmellow look, 30 min @ 350f in the oven)
  • .75 lb roasted quinoa (went pretty dark on this, had a bit of a coffee smell to them, about 2 hrs @ 350 in the oven)
  • 4 oz molasses
  • 4 oz lactose
  • 1 oz Horizon Hops (10.4 % AA - Pellet)
  • 0.5 oz Horizon Hops (14.4 % AA - Leaf)
  • 1 Oz Sterling Hops (6.2% AA - Pellet)
  • 1 Oz Willamette Hops (4.4% AA - Pellet)
  • 1 pkg Nottinghams Dry Yeast
  • 1 tblspoon Irish Moss
So I toasted the oats and quinoa the night before, so that would be out of the way.

On brew night, I steeped the grains in about 1.5 gallons of water for 30 mins at 155-160F. At this point, the roasted quinoa smell really stood out. I was a little nervous at this point, but decided to continue.

I then added the sorghum, lactose and molasses to the batch, stiring constantly. I had warmed up the sorgum prior so it was easier to pour.

I brought this mixture to a boil, and added the 1 oz of Horizon. Half of it was leaf, left over from a previous brew, and half was pellets, bought recently.
I then started the timer for 60 mins.

At 30 mins left, I added the last half oz of Horizon and a half oz of Sterling. I also added the irish moss at this point.
At 10 mins left, I added the last half oz of Sterling and half an oz of Willamette.
At flameout, I added the last half oz of Willamette, and let the mixture rest for a few minutes. It was at this point that I noticed the wort had a nice dark amber color and a really nice smell.

I added the re-hydrated Nottinghams yeast once the mixture was down to 70 degrees.

Anyways, I'll post a followup later on how it tastes.
 
I would also be using 2 pkg's of DanStars Nottinghams yeast.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions on changes?

I just found something out this week in regards to which yeasts are gluten free. I was listening to an old Basic Brewing Podcast and the people from fermentis wrote in to answer some questions from a previous podcast on Gluten Free Brewing.

The ONLY gaurenteed gluten free yeast strains are Safale Brands. They are grown on mollases plates/starters as opposed to malt/wheat based plates and starters.

The only caveat they mentioned to this was not to harvest the yeast beyond one generation. Evidently it will begin to spontaeneously producing gluten proteins after it's been used a couple of times.


If you want to re-confirm what I'm talking about listen to the first couple of minutes of this podcast.

http://cdn2.libsyn.com/basicbrewing...55&nva=20081203140555&t=004ebe3cb35b661d9b39e

And here is the basic brewing podcast the week before;

January 18, 2007 - Gluten Free brewing
Connie Rieper-Estes and Leigh Nogy from Dark Hills Brewery talk with us about brewing gluten free beer at home and their dream of founding a commercial gluten free brewery.

Gluten Free Brewing Project

Gluten Free Beer - GF Links Too

Gluten Free Home Brewing

Listen to the podcast

Edit Just found out that, thanks to Denny Conn, that wyeast's yeast can be used in gluten free as well....Check this out for more inof.

Wyeast Laboratories. Gluten Free Liquid Yeast from Wyeast Laboratories, Inc.™ April 26, 2007

Which means more variability, but not too much...there is yet to evidently be a yeast where you can mimic a Belgian let's say in a Spelt beer...where you can get those neat phenols from.
 
I just found something out this week in regards to which yeasts are gluten free. I was listening to an old Basic Brewing Podcast and the people from fermentis wrote in to answer some questions from a previous podcast on Gluten Free Brewing.

The ONLY gaurenteed gluten free yeast strains are Safale Brands. They are grown on mollases plates/starters as opposed to malt/wheat based plates and starters.

The only caveat they mentioned to this was not to harvest the yeast beyond one generation. Evidently it will begin to spontaeneously producing gluten proteins after it's been used a couple of times.


If you want to re-confirm what I'm talking about listen to the first couple of minutes of this podcast.

http://cdn2.libsyn.com/basicbrewing...55&nva=20081203140555&t=004ebe3cb35b661d9b39e

And here is the basic brewing podcast the week before;

Thanks Revvy good info here. I also want to make some for a friend. I hope the OP post his taste comments about his recipe.
 
Thanks Revvy good info here. I also want to make some for a friend. I hope the OP post his taste comments about his recipe.

Thanks BC, I actually didn't realize this was an older thread, I've been sitting on the fermentis info since Thursday waiting to share what I heard.

I think we need some sort of gluten free sticky someplace where all this inf and recipes can go...that is if we don't have one already. I've never had to deal with it yet, so I haven't paid much attention...but since beer trivia sticks in my head I thought I'd share. :D
 
Thanks BC, I actually didn't realize this was an older thread, I've been sitting on the fermentis info since Thursday waiting to share what I heard.

I think we need some sort of gluten free sticky someplace where all this inf and recipes can go...that is if we don't have one already. I've never had to deal with it yet, so I haven't paid much attention...but since beer trivia sticks in my head I thought I'd share. :D

I would hate to make "gluten free" for someone w/ allergies only to find out they had a reaction and it was due to the yeast.
 
Hey everyone,
I got an PM asking for an update and I thought I should post up.

My buddy really liked it. I didn't get the color that I wanted though. With the color and mouth feel, I would say it ended up being more in the barley wine style (without the barley). I think the ABV ended up between 8 and 9%.

If I could do it again, I think I would have been more aggressive on the hop schedule. There wasn't hardly any hop aroma in the finished product and I've found that I like to have a bit of the hop smell.

I would also like to try this again, cutting back a bit on the quiona and adding millet. There's got to be a way to get the dark color that's more approriate for a stout, but I think that would take some experimenting. Also, when roasting/toasting the grains, next time I'm going to do it on the grill outside vs inside. The wife didn't care for the smell :)
(and that's probably an understatement).

Anyways, it was a fun little experiement, and I will likely try again. My buddy said he'd pay me to do it again, which isn't a bad thing :)

btw, Gluten, your box is full :)

EDIT: Oh, and btw, Revvy, I just saw your repy up above. The pkg's of Notty that I had said Gluten Free on them, so I assumed they were okay. That's interesting though about how their growth is handled. I'm wondering if it was truely GF or almost GF.
 
Interesting. My sister is allergic to Gluten and can't have beer anymore because of it. Once I learn more about all this I'll make her a batch. Thanks to everyone for the info.
 
What exactly did you do with the grains? Did you malt them or just take the grain and toast it?
 
What exactly did you do with the grains? Did you malt them or just take the grain and toast it?

I just tasted them. I already had enough malt equivlent since I was doing a half batch (3 gallons), but using 6 lbs of sorghum. The grains where more for texture and some flavor vs adding more fermentables.
 
I just found this gluten free beer recipe and procedure.

It's useful for me as I can find Quinoa readily, it's not that I need a gluten free beer. However it details the procedure with things to look out for concerning the difference between processing these types of grains and barley malt, such as the lower diastatic power of the grains and thus the difficulty of adjuncts.

http://www.sillyyak.com.au/gfb/index.html

Hope someone can make use of it.
 
Back
Top