Gluten free "wit"

With thanks/apologies to HBT'r driftlessbrewer

We have some visitors coming to thanksgiving who don't eat gluten. After poking around the Gluten free brewer's group I found this recipe about a month ago. Its sat in bottles for about three weeks. Still a little young. I'll serve this beer. I've drank a couple on my own over the last week or so and its generally pretty good.


Pros-
Simple to make, Syrup to glass in 3 weeks, fermented like a champ, great body from the malto-dextrin, flavor is generally beer-like, good recipe for the T-58 as it contributed much of the flavor.

Cons-
Nearly zero head retention, weak head formation, has a bit of the sweet and sour taste associated with sorghum, orange peel seems like its hurting more than helping, not very wit-like (but thats not a big deal to me)


What I'm really looking forward to is just handing it to a beer judge and getting some feedback.

Heres the original recipe found in the GF group posts....

0.5 lb Flaked corn
6.0 lb White Sorghum Syrup
0.25 lb Dark candi sugar
1.00 oz Brewer's Gold (7.4%) (60 min)
1.00 oz Spalter (4.0%) (15 min)
0.25 tsp Irish moss (10 min)
8.00 oz Malto-dextrin (5 min)
0.75 oz Coriander seeds (5 min)
0.75 oz Orange peel bitter (5 min)
15 Black pepper corns (0 min)
1 pkg SafBrew Specialty Ale (T-58)

For the flaked corn: Steep in 1.5 gallons of water (in brew pot) at 158 F for 30 minutes. Sparge with 0.5 gallons of 180 F water.

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.015 (4.3% alcohol)

Additional coriander and pepper corns were added to the secondary.

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Nice to see someone else tried this, I've been looking at a wit next and I was considering that one...I think I have another recipe around here somehwere or I'll just adapt it from another one, but thanks for the insight. Definitely keep us posted on your family's comments.

I have family coming in for Thanksgiving this year and it will be the first gluten-free Thanksgiving I'm having. I think I'll try to get together my "menu" and recipies and post them somewhere on here for anyone that's interested!

I suspect the recipe pre-dates their wheat yeast. Might be interesting to compare the two.

Safbrew WB-06
A specialty yeast selected for wheat beer fermentations. The yeast produces subtle ester and phenol flavor notes typical of wheat beers. The choice of Wheat or Weizen bier fans. Available in 11.5g sachets.

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Yeast seems to be the best flavor contributer in this beer, I've been drinking the first glass of a bomber poured properly and the second glass "roused"

You should also check that your maltodextrin is gluten free, I now the Coopers range in Australia is not guaranteed to be GF as it can come from either wheat or corn, or a mix.

celiacsurvivor said:

You should also check that your maltodextrin is gluten free, I now the Coopers range in Australia is not guaranteed to be GF as it can come from either wheat or corn, or a mix.

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ruh roh...

Its from northernbrewer.com....I think it was handled in bulk and packed by the staff there.

Sending an email now...

From http://glutenfreeliving.com/ingredient.php :

Maltodextrin
Maltodextrin is gluten free. It can be made from a variety of starches, including corn, potato, rice or wheat. However the source does not matter because maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the protein is removed, rendering it gluten free. If wheat is used to make maltodextrin, "wheat" will be appear on the label. Even in this case, the maltodextrin would be gluten free.


From http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/faqs/f/Maltodextrin.htm :

In the United States, maltodextrin is usually made from rice, corn, or potato. In Europe, maltodextrin is frequently made from wheat.


From http://Celiac.com : Maltodextrin is prepared…by partial hydrolosis of corn starch or potato starch with safe and suitable acids and enzymes. (1) Maltodextrin, when listed on food sold in the USA, must be made from corn or potato. The ruled does NOT apply to vitamin or mineral supplements and medications….all maltodextrins in the USA are made from corn starch.

Androshen said:

From http://glutenfreeliving.com/ingredient.php :

Maltodextrin
Maltodextrin is gluten free. It can be made from a variety of starches, including corn, potato, rice or wheat. However the source does not matter because maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the protein is removed, rendering it gluten free. If wheat is used to make maltodextrin, "wheat" will be appear on the label. Even in this case, the maltodextrin would be gluten free.


From http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/faqs/f/Maltodextrin.htm :

In the United States, maltodextrin is usually made from rice, corn, or potato. In Europe, maltodextrin is frequently made from wheat.


From http://Celiac.com : Maltodextrin is prepared…by partial hydrolosis of corn starch or potato starch with safe and suitable acids and enzymes. (1) Maltodextrin, when listed on food sold in the USA, must be made from corn or potato. The ruled does NOT apply to vitamin or mineral supplements and medications….all maltodextrins in the USA are made from corn starch.

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Nice- I actually just emailed LD Carlson about theirs Sunday night...have yet to hear back...

I think Fri, Oct 30, 2009 carlson is also the northern brewer supplier

lcasanova said:

Nice- I actually just emailed LD Carlson about theirs Sunday night...have yet to hear back...

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Heard anything back yet? I never even thought about checking into that.

Nope, but Androshen's post has satisfied me.

Also, bluffwallace says he uses maltodextrin from here:http://www.homebrewers.com/product/1995/Maltodextrin.html and they have verified that it is gluten-free and that they only process corn at their plant- no cross-contamination.

Androshen said:

From http://glutenfreeliving.com/ingredient.php :

Maltodextrin
Maltodextrin is gluten free. It can be made from a variety of starches, including corn, potato, rice or wheat. However the source does not matter because maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the protein is removed, rendering it gluten free. If wheat is used to make maltodextrin, "wheat" will be appear on the label. Even in this case, the maltodextrin would be gluten free.


From http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/faqs/f/Maltodextrin.htm :

In the United States, maltodextrin is usually made from rice, corn, or potato. In Europe, maltodextrin is frequently made from wheat.


From http://Celiac.com : Maltodextrin is prepared…by partial hydrolosis of corn starch or potato starch with safe and suitable acids and enzymes. (1) Maltodextrin, when listed on food sold in the USA, must be made from corn or potato. The ruled does NOT apply to vitamin or mineral supplements and medications….all maltodextrins in the USA are made from corn starch.

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Thanks for clearing that up, good news for folk in the US.

Just came across this thread while doing some research for my next gluten-free beer (a saison) and thought I would add that I brewed a gluten-free Wit with pretty good success. You can read about it here. I would add that, like the OP, the biggest problem for me was head retention. That being said, my gluten-intolerant buddy didn't really seem to mind.

Windigstadt said:

Just came across this thread while doing some research for my next gluten-free beer (a saison) and thought I would add that I brewed a gluten-free Wit with pretty good success. You can read about it here. I would add that, like the OP, the biggest problem for me was head retention. That being said, my gluten-intolerant buddy didn't really seem to mind.

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What was your yeast for that saison I'd feel like the character of that beer is almost more dependant on yeast than wit.

philrose said:

With thanks/apologies to HBT'r driftlessbrewer

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I'm glad you gave the recipe a try. Any ideas on how to make it better are welcome. The head retention thing is a challenge. . .

Driftless Brewer said:

I'm glad you gave the recipe a try. Any ideas on how to make it better are welcome. The head retention thing is a challenge. . .

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cool, thanks for noticing the thread. Recipe is drinking nice. Thanks :rockin:

small bump here

I'm entering this in the sam adams 2010 longshot.

I'll post comments and scores/whatnot

Nice, did you brew it again or is this from the original batch?

its the original, I set aside the sixer of 12 oz bottles specifically to see what a judge thought about it and the sam adams thing is all category 23 this year. seemed like a good time to send it in

i think I still have a couple bombers floating around somewhere, I should crack one for QA purposes

How did the QA go?

EDIT: Is the op recipe 5 gallons?

I'm In Phoenix until Friday so the quality assurance will have to wait untill then. Still haunt submitted for longshot, not sure if there's still time?

And yes, 5 gallons.

Just got this in the keg, I switched a few things around like the hops (roughly same AA%) and I used oats instead of corn, but it came out not to bad for a GF beer, but it was a little to bitter for the wife, so I threw some sweet orange peel in the keg, which helped the bitterness and now she really enjoys it.

I brewed this for a friend last Christmas. At first, there was a very unique 'bite' to it, probably from the sorghum. But I had some of the leftovers last week (about 7 months after brewing) and it has mellowed out a lot. It really gets better with age!

bh10 said:

Just got this in the keg, I switched a few things around like the hops (roughly same AA%) and I used oats instead of corn, but it came out not to bad for a GF beer, but it was a little to bitter for the wife, so I threw some sweet orange peel in the keg, which helped the bitterness and now she really enjoys it.

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Yeah, the corn seems silly anyway, it cant convert and theres gotta be an easier way of putting a haze on the beer.

For haze just throw in a tablespoon of corn starch into the boil. I used sorgum flour in mine and it has a bit of haze but the flour is not as fine as the corn starch.