Grain prep - malted vs unmalted

As I am preparing to delve into my first attempt at home brewing I find myself reading furiously to make sure I "do things right" ....
One question that I have come up with is this ... do I need to malt my grains? Or will simply roasting them in the oven be sufficient?
I seem to see schools of thought regarding both choices so I will hold off a bit to gather more opinions for me to use in making my decision.
I currently have 3 grains that I will be using ... buckwheat groats, white quinoa and millet.
Is malting the grains necessary? If not, what does it add to the beer to do so and what would I be missing out if I simply roasted the grains as is?
If I malt the grains, are there any problems with malting the above grains that I should be aware of?

Oh ... also .... if I do not malt the grains, is there anything that needs to be added to the mix that would not be needed if the grains were malted?

Malting grains produces enzymes that breakdown the starches into sugars. If you don't malt, you have to add amylase or a similar enzyme.

You can always roast the malted/unmalted grains and use them as specialty grains. If you malt enough you could try to mash them, but you need to do a decoction- search around here for that. Hope that gives you some ideas!

After some research, I see a number of people saying that a malt extract is needed for brewing ... is this necessary? Should I be trying to obtain some sorghum malt extract or should adding the amylase be sufficient? Or do the 2 serve different purposes?

There should be a few recipes under the Gluten Free Brewing Forum for you to try out. I have a 5 gallon recipe for American Brown Ale (at least my take on it) that you can use. You don't have to malt grains for it unless you want to, but regardless you should roast them and steep them before bringing the water up to boil for 60 min. The directions should be there and I can clarify if you need help, shoot me a PM if you want. I'm bottling this tomorrow so taste-wise, I still don't know

For the malt extract...well, you want to use sorghum syrup or even brown rice syrup in it's place. I've only used sorghum syrup so I can't comment on the brown rice syrup, but remember- if you arent using malted grains and doing a mash of some sort, you will need some fermentables, which is what this extract, or syrup, will provide.

Hope that wasn't too confusing, if I mixed something up here I'm sure someone will chime in to fix it! Oh, and I have no experience with the amylase yet, so I can't help there.

Is your recipe posted?
The more I research lagers the more I think I am actually aiming for an ale anyway ....

Androshen said:

Is your recipe posted?
The more I research lagers the more I think I am actually aiming for an ale anyway ....

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/gluten-free-american-brown-ale-140888/

Post #3

What is the primary purpose of the sorghum? Could it be replaced with Honey? Which ingredient is responsible for color? I want to be sure to get something darker than ginger-ale.

Androshen said:

What is the primary purpose of the sorghum? Could it be replaced with Honey? Which ingredient is responsible for color? I want to be sure to get something darker than ginger-ale.

Click to expand...

Sorghum provides the fermentable sugar and adds some color, although it will get masked if you use something dark enough like molasses or dark specialty grains. I don't know if I'd replace it with honey completely, but use honey in addition if you want.

You can use dark belgian candi syrup to add some color, you can use blackstrap molasses or gluten-free grains that you've roasted yourself (I've used them all except for the candi syrup). If you're making a 5 gallon batch use about 1-2 lbs of grains and steep...

Any one else got some advice?

Hi Androshen,

If you want to use unmalted grain or even flour have a look at this thread;

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=33936&st=0

this guy is doing some pretty wild experiments to brew a GF beer without the hassle of malting the grains.

OK ... here is a preliminary ingredient workup ... does this look like it will work?

2 lbs buckwheat groats (roasted)

2 lbs quinoa (white, roasted)

2 lbs millet (roasted)

1 lb honey

2 oz hops (TBD)

1 tsp irish moss

1 pkt yeast (TBD - Ale)


This an ingredient list only, I will work on my process once I get this ironed out :-\

I guess I'm thinking that you have a lot of grains for steeping and not a lot of fermentable sugar. Maybe cut the total grain bill down to 2 lbs and add some sorghum syrup or brown rice syrup...

I notice you use 6lb of sorghum syrup ... you have a gallon jug pictured .... what volume does the 6 lbs translate to? Was it the whole gallon? Half a gallon? More than a gallon?

I think it comes in a half gallon container.

I just got back from a disappointing venture trying to track down sorghum syrup in my area - Nada.
Brown rice syrup sells for over $7/lb .... so this opens 2 new questions ....

1.) Is there a reasonable place to purchase sorghum syrup online?

2.) If I broke down and malted my grains .... could I go with an all grain recipe and forgo the sorghum syrup? If not ... would I need as much?

Androshen said:

I just got back from a disappointing venture trying to track down sorghum syrup in my area - Nada.
Brown rice syrup sells for over $7/lb .... so this opens 2 new questions ....

1.) Is there a reasonable place to purchase sorghum syrup online?

2.) If I broke down and malted my grains .... could I go with an all grain recipe and forgo the sorghum syrup? If not ... would I need as much?

Click to expand...

Northern Brewer has sorghum syrup, I think it's about $15 for 6#.

As far as malting your own grains goes, it's a fair amount of work. If you're going to malt sorghum, you also have to make sure that you get the chits off before you mash, they have arsenic in them. Aussiehomebrewer.com has tons of info on GF brewing. Everything from recipes to malting and roasting.

I also found this ...

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/SYRUP_MALT_EXTRACT_SORGHUM__C99.cfm

Currently waiting on a response from them for assurance that it is indeed a GF product.
It is in the "Sorghum and Honey" category, but some of those specifically say they are made with wheat while others do not say one way or the other ...

Seems like the more info I get, the further away I am from starting my first batch .... :-(

Get this, 6 lbs ought to be enough for a 5 gallon batch. Use that as your main fermentable, add some syrup or honey to up the gravity and steep some roasted grains for additional color. I think the syrup alone will give you a gravity of 1.040...not 100% sure on that. Don't let the lack of resources push you away, I've found what works for me you just need to find your own "sweet spot".

If you find sorghum syrup locally, good for you, if my LHBS sold it that would be grand!

GrizlyGarou said:

Northern Brewer has sorghum syrup, I think it's about $15 for 6#.

As far as malting your own grains goes, it's a fair amount of work. If you're going to malt sorghum, you also have to make sure that you get the chits off before you mash, they have arsenic in them. Aussiehomebrewer.com has tons of info on GF brewing. Everything from recipes to malting and roasting.

Click to expand...

Maybe not the chits, but the acrospires when it is done malting. I removed them and it was pretty easy to do in the dryer once the grains were dry.