Am I crazy?

So, I'm trying to figure out how to use some of the stuff I've got on hand, and use sorghum in the amounts I can order it in. I was thinking of making British mild (probably will end up being a pale mild, or at least a not particularly dark one). That's going to be based on 3 lbs of sorghum.

So, in trying to figure out what to use another 3 lbs for, I came up with this idea for a Dunkelweizen:

3 lbs Sorghum Extract
2 lbs Sorghum Syrup
1 lb either table sugar or rice extract

So, any tips? I'm guessing the sorghum syrup, being pretty dark stuff, should yield the color I intend. Should I spring for the rice extract?

Yeast nutrient needed?

I don't think you need yeast nutrients as you abv won't be that high. I would add something like lemon zest or something to add little something interesting. just an idea.

What are you talking about when you say Sorghum extract and Sorghum Syrup. I read those as being the exact same thing.

Ok, read another of your posts and now I get it.

You should dissolve a small amount of the syrup to see how many PPG you can expect from it. That would give you your answer on whether to increase the ABV.

Who knows how fermentable that stuff is either...so it could turn out as anything, and probably nothing like a hefeweizen.

DKershner said:

What are you talking about when you say Sorghum extract and Sorghum Syrup. I read those as being the exact same thing.

Ok, read another of your posts and now I get it.

You should dissolve a small amount of the syrup to see how many PPG you can expect from it. That would give you your answer on whether to increase the ABV.

Who knows how fermentable that stuff is either...so it could turn out as anything, and probably nothing like a hefeweizen.

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I'll try dissolving some to see what the gravity is. My guess is that it should fall somewhere between brs and molasses. Quick research leads me to believe that it is 75% sugar by weight, a bit of minerals, and the rest is most likely water.

The actual profile of the sugar is something else altogether...Since it is so dark, and boiled down...who knows?

My primary idea here is to make a hefeweizen, and then see what some sorghum syrup will do to it.

I expect that it will darken it.

I don't know what I'll get for flavor, and that's why I was wondering if someone else has tried it.

On review of my recipes, it actually looks like I'll have a good 4lbs of sorghum extract to use, so I'm thinking now that I'll drop down to 1 lb of the syrup. I'm figuring it can't be worse than using a pound of molasses, right?

I just did a few tests.

2 oz of my 'Sorghum Syrup' dissolved in 1 pint of water, when cooled and adjusted for temperature, read 1.043.

Tap water, lightly boiled and cooled, read 1.004 adjusted for temperature, I'd say it sounds like 39 ppg.

It tasted pretty sweet...

dorklord said:

I just did a few tests.

2 oz of my 'Sorghum Syrup' dissolved in 1 pint of water, when cooled and adjusted for temperature, read 1.043.

Tap water, lightly boiled and cooled, read 1.004 adjusted for temperature, I'd say it sounds like 39 ppg.

It tasted pretty sweet...

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Sounds right.

DKershner said:

Sounds right.

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I've given some thought to doing a fermentation test with the sorghum syrup. Putting a half pound of it into a half gallon of water, putting in some yeast and some yeast nutrient, and letting it go in one of my little jugs just to see what it gets down to.

Actually, I shouldn't have dumped the little sample I made last night...

I've found some rather technical papers online, generally information regarding using sorghum as a feed stock for ethanol production (hm...sounds similar to my idea...). It appears that as I mentioned the syrup is around 75% sugar, and that the sugar is close to 50% dextrose and 50% fructose.

dorklord said:

I've given some thought to doing a fermentation test with the sorghum syrup.

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I'm brewing a beer right now using only sorghum molasses, not the malt extract, as my fermentable. I will be bottling this weekend and will crack one open after about a week. I'm holding out hope that it will be drinkable.