Pale Ale

I recently tried my hand at brewing a gluten free pale ale around the beginning of the month and it went decently. I brewed this with malted millet only, I just hope it tastes as good as it smells. I didn't get the efficiency I was hoping for but 1.030 for an all grain with home malted and roasted gluten free grains isn't bad, IMO. The color was a bit darker than I would have liked but I think it will be ok, but the one thing that bothers me is the amount of sediment in the fermenter (the stuff at the bottom is all sediment from the cold break) maybe next time I will whirlpool and not be lazy. Hard to not get lazy after brewing for 8+ hours though... I added some amylase enzymes to my mash but the mash temp was off by about 3 - 4 degrees for 90% of the mash time (90 minutes) so i'm not so sure what lead to my lack of efficiency but I plan to figure it out by re-brewing this same recipe until I get it 100% spot on. I also plan to try this with only water, grains, hops, and yeast, no other additives (maltodextrin and such). my experience with brewing is limited and I am willing to take any pointers and tips as well as constructive critisism to expand my understanding with brewing.



6 lbs 1.6 oz Millet Pale Malt (1.0 SRM) 83.0 %
12.0 oz Millet crystal malt (75.0 SRM) 10.2 %
8.0 oz millet munich malt (20.0 SRM) 6.8 %
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Northdown [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min
0.50 oz Northdown [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 30.0 min
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml]
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days)
fermentation temp is 64.4 - 65 F.

This is a five gallon batch and I have always had issues with lautering/sparging. I usually ground my grain into a flour for better efficiency and with a grain like millet there isn't much choice but to make it a flour as it is very small. As you can assume this creates issues with the sparge being clogged and the wort being very very cloudy problems to which i have yet to find a solution, rice hulls work ok but they still dont give me a good flow.

What was your mash schedule like?

I find that lining my lauter tun with a mesh bag helps the lautering process tremendously. I also do not grind to a flour, I try to just crack the grains (which requires me to more-or-less constantly be adjusting the grind plates on my corona mill during the crushing). I've found that recirculating the wort through the mash and doing a very slow runoff helps to reduce the amount of trub in the fermenter. I used to have huge problems with trub, but my last few batches have only had about an inch on the bottom, which is comparable to when I did extract-only beers.

maybe I am mashing too thick..I'll try a few things and report back after my next couple batches show improvements and I'll see if I can get the same efficiency without grinding to a flour.

Mash thick with millet. Around 1.25 qt/lb. It needs it for the lower enzyme activity. I saw a drop in efficiency when I went thinner. Add a mash out step to help lautering. A bag is great. Stuck sparge? Lift and... bam! Not stuck anymore.

Osedax said:

Mash thick with millet. Around 1.25 qt/lb. It needs it for the lower enzyme activity. I saw a drop in efficiency when I went thinner. Add a mash out step to help lautering. A bag is great. Stuck sparge? Lift and... bam! Not stuck anymore.

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I'll try the bag and a mash out next time, just took a gravity reading last night and it was at 1.004. It tastes like hop water more than anything else, not quite what I was hoping for but I guess it is what it is for now. I also wont add amylase to my mash next time and I'll see what I end with.

Was this a 5-gallon batch? If so, your grain bill was waaaay too small. I use that much grain for a 3-gallon batch. Were you going off of Andrew Lavery's recipe? I'd recommend using Brewtoad or Beersmith to actually calculate your expected OG based on an efficiency of around 60-75% (that's the range I usually achieve, even with enzymes), he gets a 90% efficiency somehow and that's tough to achieve. I usually estimate malted millet to be around 30 ppg, it may actually be less than that, because the hull accounts for a greater percentage of the grain's weight than the husk in barley IIRC.

I estimate 21 ppg from red millet and 28 ppg from white. I base this off my current setup. I get between 65% to 80% depending on grain bill, roasts, procedure, etc. I average around 74%. Trying to dial in my grain mill currently. Working with a .010" gap. Ha! Imagine if a barley brewer tried that.

igliashon said:

Was this a 5-gallon batch? If so, your grain bill was waaaay too small. I use that much grain for a 3-gallon batch. Were you going off of Andrew Lavery's recipe? I'd recommend using Brewtoad or Beersmith to actually calculate your expected OG based on an efficiency of around 60-75% (that's the range I usually achieve, even with enzymes), he gets a 90% efficiency somehow and that's tough to achieve. I usually estimate malted millet to be around 30 ppg, it may actually be less than that, because the hull accounts for a greater percentage of the grain's weight than the husk in barley IIRC.

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yeah, it's Andrew Lavery's recipe. I plan to almost double the amount of pale malt for the next recipe and replace the millet crystal malt with buckwheat crystal malt as I have noted it tends to give better results on the finished product (head retention and body). The lower efficiency is the reason I grind my grain into a flour... it seems to give issues with filtration but i heard it brings efficiency up a good bit, but it seems like no matter how much i vorlauf it always comes out cloudy.

Most gluten free grains are much higher in protein than barley. Some around 40% higher. This can cause chill haze in the final product. Same reason wheat beers tend to be cloudy. It also makes lautering difficult.

came out decent, could have a bit more body but the flavor wasn't bad. Had a nice light carbonation and hop flavor with a nice caramel and nutty after taste. head retention is 0 lol pours nice at first but the foam subsides almost instantly.

glutenfree said:

came out decent, could have a bit more body but the flavor wasn't bad. Had a nice light carbonation and hop flavor with a nice caramel and nutty after taste. head retention is 0 lol pours nice at first but the foam subsides almost instantly. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/841/1e9s.jpg/

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how about a recipe?