GF Pale Ale

I said I'd post this recipe if it worked out, and I think it has. My goal was to dry the beer out with sugar and push the upper limit of bittering for the style to counter the basic sweetness of the sorghum.

Makes 3.5 gallons

3 lb Briess Sorghum syrup
1.5 lb dextrose
0.5 lb maltodextrine (post-ferment)

0.75 oz Columbus at 45
1 oz Progress @ 15
1 oz Mt Hood @ 5

53 IBU OG 1.051
Nottingham

FG 1.008 before MD add.

Kegged after 21 days.

Definitely no residual sweetness. Good body. Not much head. Very hoppy nose. I had to filter it, as it looked like a hefeweizen.

In primary for full 21 days?

I think drying out the beer to cover up the sweetness is a good idea. I've noticed a slight metallic aftertaste sometime too and I think an IPA would definitely solve that too.

What did you filter it with? How clear did it get after filtering?

I'm considering trying a GF beer for my wife, this might be a good one to try. Did you do a full boil? I need to figure out if I need a new brew pot, or if I can use one of the smaller designated GF stock pots we have in the kitchen.

My filter rig:

Very clear.

I did a full boil, but it was only 4 gallons to start. You could do a partial boil and add the dextrose at the very end.

How did this come out? I have not found that sorghum produces excessive sweetness, but it does have some definite characteristics, based on my own brew and what I've read here. It seems to typically have a strong citrus taste component and a bitter aftertaste, either of which might be nice to eliminate. Di this approach get you close to that? Also, how was the color? Mine, with all sorghum extract, came out VERY pale gold. This must have been paler still.

No bitter aftertaste to speak of and none of the people that sampled it last night identified it as a sorghum beer. It was also pale gold. Dry, light-bodied, clean finish, as one person put it. It did have a citrus component, but I wasn't trying to avoid that, since it is so much a part of the PNW beer scene.

I've had the same comments about the wit I made, I have a Pale Ale fermenting right now that I based off the recipe for Arrogant Bastard floating around on here. I plan to oak it, but maybe I'll only do half.

Any maybe I'll try your recipe!

The weirdest part: It was hazy, so I filtered it. Nice and clear. Three weeks later, hazy again. No other changes I can detect.

david_42 said:

The weirdest part: It was hazy, so I filtered it. Nice and clear. Three weeks later, hazy again. No other changes I can detect.

Click to expand...

Now that is weird...my gf pale ale was hazier than most hefeweizens I make.

I received the same reactions as you though, in the same part of the country as you.