Looking for a gluten free malty beer, can anyone help?

Hi All,
I'm totally new to the idea of brewing my own beer, although I've been making wine from scratch for a little while now.

Since being diagnosed as a Celiac (10 years ago), I have been craving a huge-bodied, super-malty, slightly sweet and low-to-mid hopped beer. Does anyone have a recipe or two they would be willing to share? I'm thinking something along the lines of a cream or a brown.

Any and all help is appreciated!
Ray

Cream will not be super-malty.

A porter or scotch ale sounds a little more like what you're looking for.

Subscribing to this because I fear what you are asking for doesn't exist and I'm hoping someone will prove that wrong. I've had several gluten free beers and none were even remotely malty. More like a saison than anything. You can have nuts correct? Maybe you could heavily roast some pecans or hazelnuts or something to get the roast that sorghum won't get you.

I've tried everything short of malting my own grains, and have yet to see success. That includes nuts, all-grain using unmalted grains with commercial-grade enzymes, every extract and sugar-source known to man, fruits, vegetables, you name it. I've got an order of malted buckwheat on the way, and I intend to try some oat malt soon as well, but my hopes are not high.

You may have better luck with malting your own grains. But even then, it isn't going to be the 'maltiness' you are looking for. It's not going to taste like barely malt. It's going to taste like Buckwheat malt or Millet Malt or quinoa malt. Which unfortunately is just something you are going to have to get to like. At a last push, and if you are willing, I believe there is a thing called Clarity ferm? This can be used in Barley beers to 'reduce' the gluten content. Though I would believe that this could and probably would still effect people.

Due to the amount of sugar fermentable products being used as replacements for malted grains, the beers you do are probably going to turn out dryer. Although it may sound strange, I have had more malt-like flavours from using more crystal buckwheat malt, then using golden syrup in it, rather than a little bit of crystal and a little bit of malt. Worth a try for you?

Igliashon,


Have you tried using chesnuts in your brews yet? I keep meaning to order some and give the overnight mash a try.

I hear try impart a maltyness close to barley but have yet to try a beer from harvester

How is the maltyness in their beers compared to other gf beers and Homebrew you have made

Hmmm, it looks like I'm going to be in for quite the ride!

I wonder if it will be like GF baking: the more different types of grains/starches etc. that you include, the closer you get to an approximation of 'real bread'. If you just use buckwheat, or rice flour, it always tastes exactly like that.

It looks like this will require much more research than I had anticipated

mtbskier--I actually just ordered another case of Harvester beers, and cracked open a Red Ale last night. It's much better than the first case I got, in which the beers had an ashy/tobacco kind of aftertaste that was very unpleasant. The chestnuts definitely add a nice flavor, but I would not describe it as "malty" or "barley-like". It was a good beer and I enjoyed it, definitely one of the best on the commercial market (I hesitate to compare it to my homebrew because I've never made a red ale), but it would never fool anyone looking for that barley flavor. I do plan to give chestnuts a try, though; I like what they add to the Harvester beers and think I could improve on their recipes. They still rely on sorghum extract and cane sugar quite heavily, so I'm gonna try something with malted buckwheat, sprouted quinoa, chestnuts, and buckwheat honey. If that doesn't get me close to the kind of maltiness I'm after, I'm probably going to give up on the more malt-forward styles and go for beers that feature the other ingredients more. I remember tasting my girlfriend's pint of Arrogant Bastard the other night and thinking I could probably approximate it fairly well. The higher-alcohol beers give away a lot of their maltiness to a general alcoholic sweetness, which I've been able to replicate just fine with some of my beers.

Hey igliashon - would you mind sharing that Agave-Vanilla Cream Ale recipe? It sounds yummy! (I couldn't find it on your blog site...which is great BTW!)

Ray

Sure thing, Ray! It was a real crowd-pleaser, though I should note that the vanilla flavor definitely fades with time--it's real strong at first (for the first month in bottles) but mellows more and more the longer you wait.

I call it:

Verano Perpetuo Summer Ale

3 gallon batch (multiply all ingredients by 5/3 to make a 5-gallon batch, except the yeast)
60 minute boil

1 lb Liquid Sorghum Extract, added at end of boil
1 lb Rice Syrup Solids, added at beginning of boil
1 lb Amber Agave Syrup, added at beginning of boil
12 oz Clover Honey, added at end of boil

0.5 oz Ahtanum hops, 5.3% AA, add at start of boil
0.5 oz Ahtanum hops, add at last 5 minutes of boil
1 oz Crystal hops, add at last 5 minutes of boil

1 tab Whirlfloc
US-05 Yeast
0.5 oz Vanilla extract, added to bottling sugar
(I originally intended to add some homemade extract of jasmine tea at bottling time as well, but decided to play it safe. Next time, I'll add the jasmine tea instead of the vanilla and see how it goes; I think it would be nice).

Target OG: 1.046
Target FG: 1.008

When it's young, it does have a slight tequila flavor, which I liked. It's a very light, crisp, refreshing summer quencher. It is not remotely malty, nor is it cidery or soda-like; it's its own thing, and I was quite happy with it. The hop flavor was really nice.

the_rayway said:

Hmmm, it looks like I'm going to be in for quite the ride!

I wonder if it will be like GF baking: the more different types of grains/starches etc. that you include, the closer you get to an approximation of 'real bread'. If you just use buckwheat, or rice flour, it always tastes exactly like that.

It looks like this will require much more research than I had anticipated

Click to expand...

Have you ever tried a Green's (Endeavor, Quest, Discovery)? They are made with malted gluten-free grains, and use a variety--millet, sorghum, buckwheat, rice, and maybe quinoa, IIRC. They're good, but still not very malty. Worlds away from New Planet or Redbridge, but even their Amber has a kind of thin sourness that I find in most GF beers.

I actually think the "variety" approach may not be the way to go; I'm thinking that it's better to go with a single variety of grain and just appreciate its unique flavor...it might still be grainy and malty, just not like barley. I'm very curious about buckwheat, I haven't done much with it yet but the bloke at glutenfreecraftbeer.com seems pretty into it. Other brewers seem pretty into millet, but at least using the unmalted stuff I haven't had any amazing results. I am starting to think that sprouting/malting makes an important difference, though.

Midwest Home Brew Supply has a Bard's clone kit that includes Bard's malted sorghum extract. Bard's is the only sorghum-based, gluten-free beer that malts its sorghum for traditional beer flavor, aroma and color. Brian

Now if only Bard's would step it up and introduce some new styles...the lager's good, but it's been their only offering for a great many years now. It's better than Redbridge, but about on par with New Grist. How about a brown ale or a märzen or something that really showcases that "real malt flavor", rather than trying to be as light and crisp as possible? It seems a waste to use such a fancy malted grain on a style of beer that American brewers have spent the last century trying to *rid* of malt flavor, with the introduction of adjuncts like corn and rice...and I can tell ya right now, I think Bard's could recapture a fair bit of the marketshare it's been losing to New Planet and others if it brought out a style not currently available on the commercial GF market. C'mon, show us what that sorghum malt can really do!

Thank you so much for the recipe! I can't wait to give it a go

Unfortunately, a lot of these brands are not available up here. We generally have New Grist, Le Messagere (which has a fabulous Red - tastes like Rickards Red to me!), and we have just started getting Bards.

I have no problem learning to like new flavours - such is life for us Celiacs, but had wondered if anyone had come close yet in their home brewing. Ah well, I don't mind a crisp, refreshing Kokanee now and again