muench1
Well-Known Member
I've been wondering for some time now, if you could buy good GF malted grain for partial- or all-grain brewing, what would you be willing to pay? I'm talking about real malt, comparable to barley malt.
I am far more interested in a greater availability of gluten free LME and DME than I am in using malted grains.
It also depends on the grain. Barley is cheap compared to amaranth. Millet and buckwheat would be somewhere in the middle.
I don't see malted amaranth being commercially feasible. I might be off base here, but those are some tiny seeds to be fussing about with.
I don't see malted amaranth being commercially feasible. I might be off base here, but those are some tiny seeds to be fussing about with.
I don't see malted amaranth being commercially feasible. I might be off base here, but those are some tiny seeds to be fussing about with.
Teff is even smaller and CO Malting has done that.
As long as you don't mind the taste.The base malt isnt the problem, sorghum extract is a great base.
I am far more interested in a greater availability of gluten free LME and DME than I am in using malted grains.
Northern Brewer (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/nb-sorghum-syrup.html) has used their sales volumes to influence Briess into packaging some specialty LMEs for them recently, including Organic LME, Rye LME, (most recently) Marris Otter LME, and yes: Sorghum LME (see link above).
Mostly for people who turn up these threads while searching for info, I'd like to point out that that product is NOT malt extract. It is sorghum extract, from unmalted grain. Malt extract is concentrated wort. Currently the only source for consumer GF malt extract are the bard's tale extract kits.
Made from 100% white sorghum grain, this gluten-free syrup provides proteins and amino acids necessary for yeast nutrition, head retention and body along with color and flavor. Mild flavor and pale color (2° -6° L) with a yield of 37 ppg.
Northern Brewer
Standard GF alternatives to specialty barley malts are mostly easily handled - they just need more research/documentation into how much and in what combinations will approximate particular specialty malts. Molasses, treacle, and GF chocolates can give "roasty" flavors. Caramel syrups or caramelizing your own sugars can approximate crystal malts. The tough zone is the "toasty" flavors (such as those from Biscuit, Vienna, Munich, Aromatic, etc. malts) - the fact is that the gluten in breads and grains is fairly important for the development of the Maillard "toasty" flavors. A proportioned mix of the previously mentioned roasty/caramel additives can be the solution - but would require a fair amount of trial-and-error.
BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup 45DE High Maltose is a gluten free, 100% concentrated wort made from the unmalted grain, not the cane, of the white sorghum plant.
Really? They should point that out more clearly in their product description. They describe it as sounding like it's equivalent to their other LMEs (all of which they have labelled as "syrups" and are made by Briess):
If it is essentially a fermentable 1.037 sugar from a sorghum base that includes proteins and amino acids, what are the missing components as compared to a true extract? Could this be supplemented with particular yeast nutrients/energizers to get the full effect of LME?
most of the millet, quinoa, buckwheat, teff, and rice out there isn't necessarily certified "gluten-free".
FWIW, I e-mailed Briess suggesting that they offer some GF oat malt in the future, and their response is that that's basically impossible for them unless they build a dedicated malt-house. Which makes me think that malt from Colorado Malting Co. probably can't ever be used in a commercial GF brewing operation, unless it turns out that tests for hordein and gliadin are sufficiently medically reliable (and beers made from CMC malt can pass such tests).
Sorry mate, it ain't that easy. I've tried just about every combo of sugar-based GF adjuncts, and they just can't match the flavor of grains. I routinely calibrate my taste buds by taking small sips of real non-GF beer, just to keep myself from thinking too highly of my own GF brews, and there is a depth of flavor as well as a difficult-to-describe mouth feel that I just can't achieve with extracts and sugar syrups. There's a sort of chewy nuttiness to barley beers that I have been totally unable to duplicate with extracts, even with the addition of steeping grains. Roastiness is the only flavor I can realistically replicate, which is why my stouts are always my best beers. But for lighter beers, I've given up on the extracts and syrups as anything but an easy way to boost gravity, and am now working on ways to utilize grains as the direct source of fermentables.
To be honest, I'm not even sure if that will do it; I've tried Green's beers that use malted gluten-free grains and no extracts at all, and while they're much better beers than the extract-based alternatives, they are still noticeably thin and lacking in that chewy mouth feel. It could just be the styles, but even the amber is not too far off, taste-wise, from what I can achieve with sorghum and rice extract and candi syrup. I just hope I can do better, because if I can't, I might have to throw in the towel.
CMC takes gluten-free grain and malts it in a dedicated tank, so it is supposed to be gluten-free.
I've been wondering for some time now, if you could buy good GF malted grain for partial- or all-grain brewing, what would you be willing to pay? I'm talking about real malt, comparable to barley malt.
I just bought 45 lbs from CO Malting Co, paid $116 w/ shipping to Denver from Alamosa (not too far)...
With my current efficiency (not good) I would need about 10lbs grain for 5 gallon batch of 5.0% abv beer. About $30 for grain for that batch. + 1.8 lbs rice hulls + yeast + hops... Not bad. Right now I brew 2.5-3gallon batches until I get better and develop good recipes/practices.
Based on Andrew Lavery's PDF on GF brewing, he gets about 95% efficiency using almost 7 lbs of grain in a 4.5 gallon batch. In this example he used:
Grain Bill:
6lbs Pale millet malt
5.25oz Crystal millet malt
5.25oz Munich millet malt
All ground to a flour... for a Pale Ale recipe.
I don't think that is true. Found 3 barley grains in just 1 lb of a 5 lb bag in my recent order of buckwheat from them