First Gluten Free IPA

My friend recently found out he has a gluten intolerance. I have only been homebrewing for two years, but we went ahead and brewed a simple batch up a few months back. Very light and drinkable with a slight hoppy flavor (much better than the three store bought gluten free beers he brought over). After four weeks in the bottle the sour taste associated with sorgum was almost untraceable.

Next time I plan on dry hopping, using roasted chestnuts and/or malting some buckwheat, and using Irish moss because of the cloudiness)

Here is what we did:

5 gallon batch
5.6 ABV

5 lb. Sorgum Malt Extract Liquid (Brewcraft)
2 lb. Brown Rice Syrup (Lundberg Sweet Dreams)
5 oz. Maltodextrin (Brewcraft)
1 lb. Dark Belgian Candi Sugar (Brewcraft)

3 oz. Cascade 8.9 AA
1.5 oz. Amarillo 10.4 AA
Gluten Free, Dry Ale Yeast (Nottingham)

Heat 4 gallons to 200* Fahrenheit
Turn off heat, stir while adding: Sorghum, Brown Rice, and Maltodextrin
Turn on heat and boil until protien break (when it really starts to foam up)
Keep boiling and begin 60 minute boil

Boil with hop additions:
60 min- 1.5 oz. Cascade
30 min- 1 oz. Cascade, 0.5 oz. Amarillo
15 min- 1 lb. Dark Belgian Candi Sugar
10 min- 1 oz. Amarillo, 0.5 Cascade

Cooled to 77.6* Fahrenheit (OG 1.054)
Pitch yeast

Primary fermentation- 14 Days at 65* Fahrenheit (light brown, very cloudy)
Secondary fermentation- 17 Days at 62* Fahrenheit (FG 1.011)

Bottled and primed with 3/4 corn sugar.

We cracked open the first bottle after two weeks and we think it tasted pretty darn good for our first try.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Question one: was the long primary to let the sorghum sourness condition out?

Question two: if it's an IPA, why not dry hop?

Thanks for sharing it, sounds great!

There was no special purpose in letting the primary ferment for 14 days, that is just how I was shown to brew beer. So far it has worked out ok. As far as not dry hopping, my friend was a little unsure if he would like something that hoppy. He likes beer, but did not fully understand where each flavor came from. So we played it safe the first time around.

Personally I love hoppy beers. I was just at the Portland Beer Festival this last weekend (http://www.springbeerfest.com/) and tried some great ones. My personal favorite being Laurelwood's Green Mammoth Imperial IPA.