Yeasts for GF Brew Success

Do yeasts perform differently in sorghum than they do in barley / wheat malts?

I am curious that one may see success with a GF Belgian Single (Patersbier) due to the reported sour nature of sorghum beer. However I saw one comment that Trappist High Grav (3787) doesn't love sorghum. Can anyone report actual results of 3787 or similar? I'd like to think I could light toast some GF grains (like carapils), replace the pilsner LME with sorghum, add the maltodextrin and have a winner.

What yeast would be a better substitute if not?

Honestly, I plan to use my stock 3787, make a starter using sorghum and calling it 'gluten good enough'. I'll pour off as much of the storage fluid (light DME > barley product) as I can, and it should be very low in gluten at that point.

Note: I am not strictly intending to make a 100% GF beer, merely very low gluten, as I'm not a strict Celiac. I have some sensitivity, and my wife has quite a bit more.

Thinking of brewing the GF Patersbier, then a basic ale (6# sorghum 1 oz cascade 60 mins, .75 oz cascade 15 mins, .25 oz cascades flameout, irish moss 15 mins, maltodextrin 10 mins), and then GF IPA from our forum.

Thanks. Keep sharing progress & tips.

YES! Some strains work differently with sorghum.

I've had really bad luck with belgian trappist ale yeasts and sorghum. Everything was very winey, and frankly I can't bring myself to choke the rest of them down. They will be sacrifices to the gods of beer.

However, I've had perfect luck with California Ale yeast, those strains are just amazing.

Also, I had great success with a yeast for a Belgian Wit...in fact, that one turned out most excellent too, need to brew it again.

ok! so did you use the Cali Ale yeast for your Wit?

Very sad news about the GF Belgian. If you the space to age it, let time do it's magic for a month or longer. I wonder how the sorghum ages. It seems time heals nearly all problems related to standard brewing malpractices.

I used the White Labs Wit yeast for the Wit.

The Belgian Trappist Yeasts were problematic, but not the Belgian Wit Yeasts.

Wit's and Hefe's are meant to be pretty fast in the brew-to-serve lifecycle. And a good Wit usually has some orange or lemon zest which will do a good job of masking the slight citrus taste that the sorghum gives you.

Fascinating stuff otis thanks!

I was wondering if I could use a better yeast myself. In my first GF batch I used Sorghum syrup and a little maple syrup. I used a Nottingham ale dry yeast and while the beer has fully fermented now it was really really slow.

For the California Ale yeast, are you referring to WLP001 from White Labs?

Joel

anemic said:

I wonder how the sorghum ages. It seems time heals nearly all problems related to standard brewing malpractices.

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Sorghum loses it's 'bitter' aftertaste. Some people call it citrusy, I call it bitter. On most of my sorghum beers, I make sure they sit around awhile before consumption, it helps ALOT.

As for how well they would age over a years time, I think you could just make it high gravity, which I have not done yet.

I concur on the bitterness. A couple weeks after racking the bitter aftertaste was really off-putting. Now after about five weeks in the carboy it's still there but much better. I expect a couple months in the bottle and when this batch is cold and carbonated it will be quite nice.

dkershner said:

Sorghum loses it's 'bitter' aftertaste. Some people call it citrusy, I call it bitter. On most of my sorghum beers, I make sure they sit around awhile before consumption, it helps ALOT.

As for how well they would age over a years time, I think you could just make it high gravity, which I have not done yet.

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That could explain why no two 6 packs or Red Bridge ever taste the same to me.

BBBF said:

That could explain why no two 6 packs or Red Bridge ever taste the same to me.

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I have only had one, ever, but I can't imagine it would be much different than any other commercial beer, barley or not. I actually think things like hop flavor and aroma or hefeweizen yeast qualities change faster than sorghum malt flavor.

It's actually pretty hard for me to imagine AB making a product that doesnt taste exactly the same every time, no matter what you do to it.

dkershner said:

It's actually pretty hard for me to imagine AB making a product that doesnt taste exactly the same every time, no matter what you do to it.

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Same here. That's where the idea of the sorghum flavor changing over time would make sense. The sorghum beer tastes the same everytime it leaves AB, but the time between that point and me buying it is never constant.

Of course, the temps it gets stored in would also have a factor...

I have to agree with BBBF.

My wife and I did a tour of the Budweiser facility in St. Louis, and they had Redbridge in their tasting room. One bottle was actually delicious and super refreshing, you couldn't even tell it was GF. The next bottle though from the same 6-pack was dull, bland, and tasted mediocre at best.

Don't know how much is sorghum, but you would think the one thing AB can do is create a consistent product, so it was odd there was such variance from one to the next.

Hey swmbo & I shared our first redbridge together this week. I was encouraged. Yep a little weird, so is my homebrew! sometimes my homebrew is more than a little weird! I could live with that. Interesting impressions:
*Oddly low alcoholic effects
*Oddly easy on the digestive zone. this was actually noticeable. Hm.

I was encouraged to try out my first sorghum homebrew!

so what other yeasts besides wit do we find that sorghum likes?

These ones have worked for me with great success:
California Ale WLP001 (one of the best yeasts ever)
American Lager WLP840

Note: Some people will say that beer made with White Labs Yeast isn't gluten free even though it meets federal and international guidelines for being GF (<20ppm of gluten), because you might have 2ppm of after using their yeast. But all beers made with White Labs by me have never had an ill effect on any of the celiacs or gluten-intolerant people that have drank them.

anemic said:

Note: I am not strictly intending to make a 100% GF beer, merely very low gluten, as I'm not a strict Celiac. I have some sensitivity, and my wife has quite a bit more.

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Even with this disclaimer I'd to throw it out there that I don't think any of the yeasts on this thread are gluten free.

It appears that Wyeast only has two gluten free strains. I couldn't find out any info on White Labs

This is what I found on White Labs:

Is your yeast gluten free?

Thank you for your inquiry. Our yeast is low in gluten and is below the European standard for being labeled as gluten free; the American standards are still being developed. The European standard for gluten free is below 20 ppm. Our yeast analysis:
Yeast slurry in package: 12 ppm

When our yeast is used with ingredients such as sorghum to make gluten free beer: 2 ppm

cool. I have 840 & I'll pick up 001. I also need some sorghum DME for starters. Thank you otis

I've only used Nottingham so far because it says it is gulten free. I did pick up some Munich that I'll have to try. I think that would go great with some malted buckwheat.

do you guys use a sorghum DME for your starters (I used to use a light DME)

if not then what?

anemic said:

do you guys use a sorghum DME for your starters (I used to use a light DME)

if not then what?

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Dont think Sorghum DME exists. You can use sorghum LME, or table sugar.

Remember FDA has set up 20 ppm as being GF. Some severly gluten intolerant individuals have reactions to much less than 20 ppm. Lallemand's yeasts are certified GF because they are grown on a potato starch based media and not a barley based media. The will even give you a letter of cerification that thay are GF. They work well with other beer bases such as chestnuts because they have left the cycle of barley only tolorance.

michael.berta said:

Even with this disclaimer I'd to throw it out there that I don't think any of the yeasts on this thread are gluten free.

It appears that Wyeast only has two gluten free strains. I couldn't find out any info on White Labs

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Wyeast stopped production of these yeasts several years ago. If you want gluten free, dry is your only choice. If you want really close (below the european standard) than your selection grows to whitelabs. I have not tried white labs on my SWMBO yet, but I am going to...

dkershner said:

Dont think Sorghum DME exists. You can use sorghum LME, or table sugar.

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Breiss says they make sorghum dme on their website but I've not seen it available for purchase. Maybe at special request a brewshop would order it for you.

dkershner said:

Wyeast stopped production of these yeasts several years ago. If you want gluten free, dry is your only choice. If you want really close (below the european standard) than your selection grows to whitelabs. I have not tried white labs on my SWMBO yet, but I am going to...

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Yeah, I'm still not certain about using those. If anyone does go this route, I would recomend washing the yeast and using it again. They you'll be bringing down an already low PPM.