Brewed 1st GF beer today

I recently found out I had Celiac so I am converting from a long time all grain brewer to GF brewing. I got a basic Pale Ale kit from Austin Homebrew as a Christmas gift and brewed it today.
6lbs Briess White Sorghum (3lbs @ 60min, 3lbs @ flameout)
1oz Northern Brewer @ 60min
1oz Cluster @ 15min
1oz Cascade @ 5min
Nottingham dry yeast

I hit the OG 1.042 for 5.25gal into fermenter @ 68deg

I tasted the sample from hydrometer and must say I hope it gets better. Very hoppy, to the point that it may not be drinkable and I like hoppy beers.

Thoughts?

Dude, worry not. The pre-fermentation sample tells you nothing of what the finished beer will taste like. Hop flavor and bitterness mellows with time, and especially with fermentation--when the yeast flocculates, it tends to take some hop resins with it. Austin HBS is a good company, they make good kits and if you followed the directions, you'll have nothing to worry about.

max42 said:

I tasted the sample from hydrometer and must say I hope it gets better. Very hoppy, to the point that it may not be drinkable and I like hoppy beers.

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Try a sample again after three weeks of fermentation and you'll have a better idea of what the beer is going to taste like.

Also lol @ being too hoppy. Just wait. You'll be dry hopping double ipa's before you know it.

Thanks for the replys. I posted mostly since I am not familiar with brewing with sorghum. I routinely taste samples of the beer from every stage, including chewing the various grains. So I was surprised at the taste of this beer. I'm hopeful it will be fine.

I know exactly what you're talking about - I brewed all-grain, albeit briefly, before getting into GF brewing. I used to sample my worts and thought they tasted rather strongly like the beer that would result. Not so with GF. Whether I'm brewing with honey, brown rice syrup, sorghum, or a combination, the wort is never palatable, yet I've (almost) always wound up with a great end result.

While we're at it, I'll also warn you that if you're an early sampler of your bottled beer, you may *still* find it not to your liking if you drink it too green. I always tasted a beer after 5-7 days, and very rarely is that a good idea in GF land. Let them age, 2 weeks or longer, post bottling.

Jeff

Thanks Jeffz. It's good to hear that the GF is different. I used to do a primary fermentation for 7 days and 2ndary for another 7 days before kegging. Does GF fermentation seem to be much different? Yes, I know that I can (and will) check the FG to determine when it's finished, so just looking for what most people seem to be seeing. thanks

If you're used to doing 2 weeks of fermentation and then kegging, GF is gonna test your patience. I rarely bottle before 3 weeks, and whenever I've waited longer to bottle, it's usually been an improvement. The last two batches I bottled were in primary for 5-6 weeks (no secondary), and tasted very good at bottling time.

If you're used to all-grain brewing, there are ways to brew all-grain GF, either with home-malted grains or using an enzyme blend, and the results are far superior to using sorghum syrup. But even brewing with syrups and sugars, all-sorghum is rarely the best way to go.

igliashon said:

If you're used to doing 2 weeks of fermentation and then kegging, GF is gonna test your patience. I rarely bottle before 3 weeks, and whenever I've waited longer to bottle, it's usually been an improvement. The last two batches I bottled were in primary for 5-6 weeks (no secondary), and tasted very good at bottling time.

If you're used to all-grain brewing, there are ways to brew all-grain GF, either with home-malted grains or using an enzyme blend, and the results are far superior to using sorghum syrup. But even brewing with syrups and sugars, all-sorghum is rarely the best way to go.

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Thanks. I'm not opposed to waiting, just trying to get an idea on typical fermentation times. When you say you bottle after 3+ weeks do you know if active fermentation had ended or are you just talking conditioning time after fermentation? I'm used to kegging when fermentation is over, then letting the beer force carbonate at serving pressure. This usually takes several weeks. I've found that the beers are much better after about 3-4 weeks in the keg. Maybe thats what your describing.

I started with an all sorghum kit and plan to expand from there. I have been reading this forum on malting grains but I'm not ready to go there just yet but will no doubt.

Do you have any recommendations on tried and true recipes? I like a lot of styles of beer, from the west coast style IPAs, to browns and porters.

Fermentation is usually over in 4 days to a week for me. I haven't done any controlled experiments to compare the effects of aging in the fermentor vs. aging in bottles (and I know f***-all about kegging, never had room for a kegerator but hope to some day!), so YMMV. I'd suggest following your usual process and just taking notes as to how things seem to be different GF. I had very little experience with "regular" brewing before going GF, so I don't have much comparative knowledge.

As for tried-and-true recipes, there are plenty on here. Do some browsing and you'll turn them up. Lots of good IPA recipes floating around, that's for sure....

Thanks