Sam Adams Honey Porter clone

I ran across this recipe for what was my favorite beer before being diagnosed with celiac, Sam Adams Honey Porter. I was wondering if it would be possible to substitute some of the ingredients for gluten free ingredients and still taste close to the original? If so, what would the substitutions be?

1/2 lb. black patent malt crushed
1/2 lb. chocolate malt crushed
1 lb. medium crystal malt crushed
6 lbs. amber malt syrup
3 lbs. light honey
1 oz. Perles - boiling (60 minutes)
1/2 oz. Fuggles - boiling (30 minutes)
1/2 oz. Fuggles - finishing (5 minutes)
Wyeast 1084 "Irish Ale"

Procedure:
Steep the crushed specialty grains from cold up to 160-170F and remove. Bring water to boil, turn off the heat before adding the malt extract to avoid scorching. Bring back to a boil and add boiling hops, after 30 minutes add the flavor hops, and at 55 minutes the finishing hops. Optionally add 1 tsp. Irish Moss at 45 minutes into the boil to help the break. Remove from heat, cool to 70F, transfer to carboy topping up to 5 gallons, and pitch yeast.

(please excuse my ignorance, I'm a noob and just brewed my first batch [Gluten Free Honey Ale beer kit] last night.)

This is what I've came up with so far. I doubt it will taste anything remotely like the original and I don't feel comfortable malting GF grains yet. I'm not sure about the times either. Any advice, corrections, or "what the hell where you thinking!" comments would be appreciated.


6 lbs white sorghum syrup (60 minutes)
8 oz dark belgian candi sugar (60 minutes ?)
8 oz scottish heather honey (15 minutes ?)
1 oz Fuggles (60 minutes ?)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5 minutes ?)
1 pack of Safale Ale S-04 whitebread strain (i'm assuming this is completely GF)
yeast nutrient (not sure if this is needed, or the amount. also assuming this is GF)
5 oz dextrose for bottling.

FuzzHead said:

This is what I've came up with so far. I doubt it will taste anything remotely like the original and I don't feel comfortable malting GF grains yet. I'm not sure about the times either. Any advice, corrections, or "what the hell where you thinking!" comments would be appreciated.


6 lbs white sorghum syrup (60 minutes)
8 oz dark belgian candi sugar (60 minutes ?)
8 oz scottish heather honey (15 minutes ?)
1 oz Fuggles (60 minutes ?)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (5 minutes ?)
1 pack of Safale Ale S-04 whitebread strain (i'm assuming this is completely GF)
yeast nutrient (not sure if this is needed, or the amount. also assuming this is GF)
5 oz dextrose for bottling.

Click to expand...

I'll agree with that it wont taste really all that close but the ideas are there.

I would use the same about of honey and add it at flame out. That way the wort is still boiling so its sanitized without losing flavor. and if it calls for light honey don't spend to much on it maybe use grocery store clove honey. To replace the chocolate malt (i.e. color) i would use a little black strap molasses.

I don't understand why you changed hops? Hops don't contain any gluten so don't change the hops or times of.

For they yeast look into either of these as well. http://www.brew365.com/yeast_wyeast_gluten_free.php

so this just my opinion
Cheers

I would try roasting some grains like quinoa or millet and steeping them like you would the specialty malts.

I'd up the candi sugar to at least a pound and +1 to at least matching the honey.

Also, +1 to not changing hops.

First of all, thank you all for the replies.

The reason I changed the hops is because when looking at the Sam Adams web site, it said the bittering hops were "traditional English ale hops" which I interpreted as being Fuggles; and it was dry hopped with East Kent Goldings. I just thought changing them would get me a little closer to the original. Same logic as well for the Scottish Heather Honey.

I based the measurement from the gluten free beer kits from the homebrewers outpost. they have 2 kits, one contains 1 lb of the candi, the other kit contains 1 lb of honey. I assumed the total should be 1 lb. thats why i chose a 1/2 lb of each. If I were to up the candi and honey, would I have to decrease the amount of sorghum ?

As far as the blackstrap molasses, will that help the flavor, or will that just change the color? I'm not real picky on the color, just the taste.

I'm also considering adding a whirlfloc tablet.

So they way im looking at this is if your trying to convert a standard to gluten free you have to look at what you can control. so if you can keep the honey at the same and the hops the same then those are your constants. So now you have to look to trying to get your grain flavors the same which is a huge task. Now i this how i would do it:

base grain:
6 lbs. amber malt syrup=6 lbs white sorghum syrup
Specialty:
1 lb. medium crystal malt crushed=16 oz dark belgian candi sugar
Color:
1/2 lb. black patent malt crushed and 1/2 lb. chocolate malt crushed= black strap molasses

Then go from there. I mean half the fun is to experiment. just my thoughts

noodle23 said:

So they way im looking at this is if your trying to convert a standard to gluten free you have to look at what you can control. so if you can keep the honey at the same and the hops the same then those are your constants. So now you have to look to trying to get your grain flavors the same which is a huge task. Now i this how i would do it:

base grain:
6 lbs. amber malt syrup=6 lbs white sorghum syrup
Specialty:
1 lb. medium crystal malt crushed=16 oz dark belgian candi sugar
Color:
1/2 lb. black patent malt crushed and 1/2 lb. chocolate malt crushed= black strap molasses

Then go from there. I mean half the fun is to experiment. just my thoughts

Click to expand...

C40 would be closer to Amber Candi Sugar than dark.

How did this turn out, and what was the final recipe? I'm looking to make a GF honey porter. Anyone else have any successes with this?