Gluten Free Kit Recommendations

I am new to home brewing and would like to make a Gluten Free beer for a good friend. I have read several threads and links to different kits but haven’t found one where someone has brewed the actual kit and provided feedback let along praised it. I know I am being a wimp but in my mind finding a good kit without having to modify it increase my success rate. If it goes well and I decided to brew it again I can tweak the quantities and timing to further improve the beer to personal taste. I also don’t want to waste cash on something that isn’t good but more importantly my time and tying up my brewing equipment. I am probably overly concerned because most GF I have tasted aren’t good and the threads on GF beer appear to support that it’s hard to make a decent tasking GF.
In short can anyone vouch for a good GF kit? If so can you provided a link or name? Thanks for the help.

You are right about a lot in your post except that its hard to make a good GF beer.

I've never used a kit (I'm 12 or 15 batches into my being career, all GF) yet EVERY beer I've ever made is better than any commercially available one I've tried. There are some I liked better than others, but they were all good.

So, I can't help you with a kit recommendation, but there are plenty of good, tried and true recipes on this board.

Also, IMHO, most if the kits I've looked at will simply yield you a Red Bridge. That's not terrible, but not great either.

P.S. Don't be put off the number of failed brews listed her either. There is a LOT of experimenting going on with GF beer so there will be failures.

If you don't wasn't to experiment, then don't. Just grab someone's successful recipe.

There is a great gluten free home brewing page on Facebook that gives links to homebrew shops across the country with ingredients, websites (like this one) with references and also a TON of recipes that are ranked from beginner to expert. Here's the link http://www.facebook.com/GlutenFreeHomeBrewing I'm new to GF brewing although I have brewed 10+ extract batches. Hope that helps.

Beardo21 said:

There is a great gluten free home brewing page on Facebook that gives links to homebrew shops across the country with ingredients, websites (like this one) with references and also a TON of recipes that are ranked from beginner to expert. Here's the link http://www.facebook.com/GlutenFreeHomeBrewing I'm new to GF brewing although I have brewed 10+ extract batches. Hope that helps.

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Wow, thanks for that. Great link!

Thanks for the words of encouragement and letting me know brewing a good GF beer isn’t impossible. I may go with a recipe after looking at some of the links and your feedback. My local brew shop is just getting started and they are always short on items and substituting ingredients. Not that it’s a bad thing just a little concerning to me with a GF beer. I will write back when I pick a recipe and let everyone know how it turned out.

If your local supplier isn't very reliable you can always go online. I buy most of my ingredients for homebrew from Amazon. I also used Northern Brewer once.

ChasidicCalvinist said:

If your local supplier isn't very reliable you can always go online. I buy most of my ingredients for homebrew from Amazon. I also used Northern Brewer once.

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Also, despite the early failures that igliashon and others had with buying brown rice syrup from highgravitybrew.com I've ordered from them a couple times since then and have had no problems.

Pretty inexpensive too. However, I was successful in talking a LHBS into buying a 60 pound bucket, dividing it into 6 lb tubs and selling it to me at the same price....Thanantos FTW!

My more recent experiences with High Gravity Brew have been nothing short of excellent. They successfully remedied the early problems they had with the BRS spontaneously fermenting in the bucket. I highly recommend them.

I am gluten intolerant and just bottles my first batch of homebrew a week and a half ago. The kit was not gluten free, from my dad who ordered from Northern Brewer. It came with an Irish Red ale recipe and kit. I learned from experience that the beat gluten free recipes for baking at least for me were normal recipes where I just subbed in my gf ingredients. I took that logic over to beer and for steeping grains used roasted buckwheat and quinoa and instead of barley malt used sorghum malt. I am an impatient man so I tried one today. Still pretty flat but straight taste wise I enjoy it, almost like a greens with a citrusy aftertaste and aroma. My wife thinks it tastes like blue moon.
My biggest concern right now is carbonation and then it'll be head retention. Most gf don't have good head retention, except for Greens quest.