Anyone used brown rice syrup in place of sorghum syrup and preferred one over the other? I'm trying to get a recipe together and I have some brown rice syrup...just not sure about using it instead of the sorghum syrup.
Is there any way to make GF beer without sorghum?
I don't notice sorghum being used in regular beers .....
Is it because of the malting process?
Personally I wouldn't take the either/or approach to Sorghum and Rice extract. Instead do a mixture of about 5 or 6 parts sorghum extract to 1 part rice extract and you'll end up with a tasty beer that mellows out the sorghum sour notes.
Well, I can report that a GF sorghum Pale can taste a heck of a lot like a green IPA. Just a matter of using some dextrose and a moderate amount of hops. Still tweaking it to get some body back.
Maltodextrin (or Lactose if you're making a Cream Ale) is the real key to body in GF beers. Basically figure out the amount of non-fermentable sugars (sorghum syrup is 25% non-fermentable sugars, whereas rice extract is almost completely fermentable). Then add enough maltodextrin to raise the FG to the desired level.
Example:
I have a 6lb container of sorghum syrup and a 1.25 lb jar of rice extract. How much maltodextrin do I need to get a FG of 1.013 from my 5.25 gal batch of beer?
First Find the FG without Maltodextrin
6 lbs at 38 points per lbs per gal = 228 points
Assume sorghum is 25% non-fermentable (from Briess website), then that means 57 points of non-fermentables.
To get a FG of 1.013 from 5.25 gal that means you need a total of 68 points non-fermentables.
Take 57 from 68, that means you need 11 points of maltodextrin for your batch...or around 4-5 oz of maltodextrin powder (typically powder is about 40 points per pound).
This is a technique I've been using lately and it's been giving me perfect head on my beer that last just as long as it should.
Bonus:
OG on the above example would be about 1.055
The final product is roughly 50% soluble complex carbohydrates, 45% maltose, and 3% glucose.
Good luck with that, I just wish the syrup was a bit cheaper! But way to set us straight
i've got a sorghum honey pale ale in my fermenter at the moment, i just added finings to help clear it, sorghum seems to produce a lot more sediment then normal extracts, it smells really good nice and sweet. but it stills has that sour sorghum taste that i was trying to avoid from brewing my own rather then buying it. i live in australia and the cost of a slab of gluten free beer is $80, the same as a slab of premixed spirits! being a coeliac is very expensive!!!
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