flaked maize and rice

to start, my first batch of gluten free was a bust. no enzymes to convert my unmalted grains.

that beinging said I am trying again. I want to use some flaked maize and flaked rice in my brew along with some rice solids, corn sugar and maltdextrine. i am trying to keep away from the bitter sorgum extract to produce something I could add hops to or maybe even fruit.

Am I setting myself up for failure once again?

Unless you toast them, you shouldn't expect anything but a bit of starchy flavor from your flaked grains. A light toast will add some nice flavor to what will otherwise be a light and dry beer. Or you can get some amylase enzyme to add after steeping to clear up any residual starch haze. Adding some raw unfiltered honey at the end of the boil, up to 4 oz per gallon, will help add sweetness and complexity to the finished beer--but choose the variety carefully, as the flavor can be quite strong. Buckwheat is the most malty, but I've had good experience with raspberry, clover, orange blossom, and pine honey (bad experiences with chestnut honey--don't even TRY it!).

By all means, add hops--and plenty of them! Going for lots of hop aroma is never a bad thing in gluten-free beers, I've had excellent results brewing hoppy-but-light-bodied gluten-free beers. I've brewed some very nice beers with just rice, corn sugar, honey, and maltodextrin, and tons of hops late in the boil. If you want a more exact recipe suggestion, I'd be happy to offer one.

Sorghum has a bad reputation. Use it wisely and you can make a grest gf beer.

I agree with Calvinist.

I wouldn't use ONLY sorghum in a beer again, but IPA's I've made where it was 2/3's or less of the grist the twang is not even detectable over the hops.

Very interested to see how this turns out... My wife is very unimpressed with sorghum, she wants me to give a flaked somthin a shot... I was thinking about 2# gf oatmeal, 1# ea of flaked rice & corn for the main staples... Im thinking i will shoot for a brown with the extra oatmeal and adding some d180...

How are you toasting? Just dump on a tray and bake?

robbyhicks said:

Very interested to see how this turns out... My wife is very unimpressed with sorghum, she wants me to give a flaked somthin a shot... I was thinking about 2# gf oatmeal, 1# ea of flaked rice & corn for the main staples... Im thinking i will shoot for a brown with the extra oatmeal and adding some d180...

How are you toasting? Just dump on a tray and bake?

Click to expand...

By "the main staples", do you mean you're going to mash these grains with enzymes to get fermentables out of them? Or are you just adding 4# of steeping grains?

As for toasting, yeah, you can bake in the oven, or you can toast in a frying pan over medium heat (stirring constantly), which goes more quickly. Unlike toasting barley, where the goal is a slow low-temp toast to give color without denaturing the enzymes, toasting non-diastatic grains can be done more quickly at higher temperatures, because there are no enzymes to worry about.

Originally was planning to steep, but found the info on not getting conversion, so picked up some amalyes(sp?) Enzyme, need to research some more... With the enzyme issue im gonna add 1.5# of sorghum or 2# of tapioca if i can get my hands on the syrup...

Open to suggestions, dont mean to hijack the thread from the OP but sounded like we were going similar direction...

That should be a good starting-place. Three things to make sure of when mashing these grains: 1) grind them to approximately grits consistency, 2) boil them for 15 minutes before dropping the temp to saccharification temperature and then adding the enzymes, and 3) use plenty of rice hulls! You have to thoroughly cook GF grains before you can add enzymes, as most of them do not gelatinize at saccharification temperature. Gelatinization is the process of making the grain's starches soluble in water (and thus available for conversion), and every kind of grain has a different gelatinization temperature. Barley is sort of a miracle, in that its gelatinization temp is the same as the optimal temperature for saccharification enzymes to convert starch to sugar. Also, it seems that you should expect to do a longer-than-usual mash, at least two hours. Good luck, and post results!

So i am now really confused. do i mash my flaked grains in more and hotter water than i would for regular beer grains or just put them i a pot and boil them like oatmeal. then once i get my soup (or wort) then add amalaze enzyme to that. which should give my some abv from my flaked grains. then boil this mess where i can add hops corn sugar, ect .

I was hoping to pull it out in partial mash(steeping) & extract mode... After reading ig's resp i am thing i will have to bust out the bible and see what i have to do to mash... Or (cheap alert) change the recipe

thatsus02 said:

So i am now really confused. do i mash my flaked grains in more and hotter water than i would for regular beer grains or just put them i a pot and boil them like oatmeal. then once i get my soup (or wort) then add amalaze enzyme to that. which should give my some abv from my flaked grains. then boil this mess where i can add hops corn sugar, ect .

Click to expand...

Yeah, cook it like oatmeal, add enough cold water to bring it back down to mash temperature, add the amylase, rest for a few hours, then sparge, top up to desired amount, add adjunct sugars as desired and boil as normal.

Or, toast the flaked grains for flavor and use as you would steeping grains in a partial mash recipe--steep the uncooked grains at 150 with some enzymes for 30-60 minutes, then strain out. You're unlikely to get many sugars this way and the enzymes are just there in case any starch does make it into the wort.

so i went to northern brewer and more beer and was unable to locate any of this amylase enzyme. is it under a different name, or just not locating it. Where could I get some or should i just start spitting in a cup and pour my spittoon in my mash tun.

well got my diatase ordered today, bought some molasses and ready to plan my brew. hopefully it turns out better than my first attempt.

What are you looking to brew for this next one?

well the time has come, roasted the crushed rice and quinona to toasty brown color. heated pot of water, added rice hulls to flaked rice and corn and oats and made poorage. let stew then cooled to mash temp and added my enzymes. now the wait to see if it works. wish me luck.

For sure... Eagerly awaiting results