GF Orange Honey Ale - Shock Top Clone

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In May 2011, we brewed our first batch of gluten free beer - 5 gal -
orange honey ale.

7 lb. Briess sorghum extract (60)
1 oz German Perle bitter hops (45)
6 oz. Lemon juice (about 2 lemons) (30)
1 lb. Wildflower honey (local is best) (20)
1 oz. Sweet orange peel (10)
1 oz. Mt Hood finishing hops (5)
11 g Nottingham yeast (Danstar)
3/4 c priming sugar

1. Add 2.5 gallons distilled water to brew pot.
2. Add 7 lb sorghum extract to pot. Bring to a boil. Stir to prevent scorching.
3. Place bitter hops in large tea ball (don’t compress). Add to brew pot when mix boils. Boil for 45 minutes.
4. Add lemon juice with 30 minutes remaining. Stir every 5 minutes.
5. Remove brew pot from heat. Add in honey and stir. Return to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes.
6. At 10 minutes, add the orange peel
7. At 5 minutes, add the finishing hops.
8. Cool wort in ice bath.

**Rehydrate yeast in 1 c warm water (95-105F). Pitch between 15 and 30 minutes.

Starting gravity was 1.56. Final gravity was 1.12. Final alcohol content was slightly strong at 5.8%.

After sharing this brew with several family and friends, they all agreed it was excellent. It turned out a lot like AB's Shock Top.

Comments:
* Clean finish
* Crisp, refreshing taste
* Pleasant citrus and orange notes
* Good color
* Strong carbonation

Suggestions:
* Less priming sugar
* Add more juice
* Try orange juice instead of lemon
* Add coriander?

This past weekend, we brewed a new batch - Pumpkin Spice and All Things Nice (5 Gal). It is in the first fermentation stage. Once it's bottled and fermented a second time (and we get some feed-back), I'll post that recipe, too.

:mug: Cheers!!
- Maple Tree Brewing Company
- Gluten Free Diaries
 
Thanks for posting the recipe! That sounds really good. I think I might give it a shot sometime within the next few months...

Just out of curiosity do you have an estimate on IBUs? I'd guess somewhere around 20?
 
I thought you should not use distilled water since it has nothing in it and the ferment process needs some minerals in the water?

Filtered water is fine since is not 100% like distilled
 
I thought you should not use distilled water since it has nothing in it and the ferment process needs some minerals in the water?

Filtered water is fine since is not 100% like distilled
Good question about distilled water. We chose to use distilled water for two reasons: we're not messing with the water's profile and we didn't want to "mess up" the sorghum extract's intentions. You will have all of the minerals from the extract since they get concentrated with the extract, and then all of the minerals with the water that you add. This is why we chose to use distilled water.

You can use distilled water with great results. However you can not use strait distilled, you have to add back the minerals that are appropriate for the style. Strait distilled will leach minerals from your ingredients leaving you with some pretty harsh flavors. If you are looking to experiment with a better water you might consider artesian bottled water, it's usually the same price as the distilled. Building water is considered a more advanced task in brewing.

Oh, another reason - I can get it for free from the laboratory I work in :)
 
Thanks for posting the recipe! That sounds really good. I think I might give it a shot sometime within the next few months...

Just out of curiosity do you have an estimate on IBUs? I'd guess somewhere around 20?
I do have an estimate - sorry I forgot to post that!
Estimated IBU is around 6.5.
 
That looks pretty damn awesome.

You could use this way of combining fruit if you want to get more flavour from it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/gluten-free-blood-orange-hefe-181144/
We actually split the 5 gallon batch. 2.5 gallons was the orange honey ale. The other 2.5 gallons was a ginger-honey ale. We ended up using 2 oz of ginger extract. It turned out being super strong - next time we'll reduce the ginger extract and boil some ginger root with the wort.
 
I attempted a gluten-free shock-top clone:

3 lb briess sorghum
1/2 lb corn sugar
1/2 oz german perle
3 oz OJ, 3 oz lemon juice
1/2 lb honey
1/2 oz "blue moon" spice/seasoning packet (sweet orange, bitter orange, coriander)
1/2 oz mt. hood
5.5 grams yeast (used Fermentis Safale S-04)

Brewed on 11/13, OG 1.074... tasted very sweet and orangey, very obvious honey notes, barely any hop flavor.

Tasted on 11/20, Gravity 1.020... tons of orange flavor, no carbonation, sweet with lots of honey... did have the sorghum after-taste

Decided to dry-hop it, hoping to balance out that mineraley flavor. Otherwise it was delicious and sweet when we tasted it. Used 1/2 oz of Mt. Hood that had been stored in the freezer (pellets), and just dumped them in.

Today (11/22) when we tasted it, the beer tasted sour, almost as sour as lemon juice. It was a little carbonated too. My girlfriend said it smelled "off." It is definitely not as delicious as it was two days ago. The gravity hasn't changed.

So my question is... could my beer have gone bad in two days? What could have caused this? How do I know if it's sour because of a lacto infection, or if it's just sour because that's the way it's maturing to be? We didn't see any weird stuff growing on top, didn't get any "gushing," although the airlock did bubble a bit. How do you tell if a beer is "bad" sour, or just... sour?
 
It's possible to have been infected during the addition of the dry hop, or the introduction of oxygen. Everything listed was the boil? What were the sanitary procedures?

It's kind of hard to tell based on different sours. One person's good sour is another person's bad sour to boot. (Like blue cheese I suppose). Do you see any odd film growing on the top of the beer?
 
Just bottled this last night and had a half filled bottle left over. Of course I had to drink it uncarbed on the spot, the flavor was fantastic!

Thanks for sharing!
 
Just cracked the first two bottles tonight.. This recipe turned out fantastic, one of the better gluten free beers.

Highly recommend trying this one.

The only change I made was priming it with honey.
 
I recently brewed a 1 gallon batch that was inspired by MapleTree's recipe and it came out pretty good.

When I scale up to a full 5 gallon batch, I'm planning on keeping more faithful to the original recipe. One thing I was considering doing differently with the large batch would be to use S-33 instead of Nottingham.

Anyone have any opinions on this?

Thanks again for posting the recipe!

:mug:
 
Hope it works out! We're actually planning to try this as a 2.5 gallon batch when we drink through the rest of the chocolate "porter". 5 gallons takes a while for the two of us to get through.
 
I finally got around to brewing this in a 2.5-gallon batch; I used orange/pineapple juice and honey for priming those are the only two deviations from the original recipe. I tried one after being in the bottle for one week and it was horrible. I mean bad I could not even finish my glass and had to pour the rest bottle out, so I waited another week and decided to try it again and what a surprise I was in for. This beer made a complete 180 in a week from horrible nasty beer to something I would make and drink again. The citrus notes and the touch of honey flavor is wonderful. It is a very crisp and clean beer with little to no sorghum tang to it. I do not drink GF beer at all, I brewed it for my mother who has a gluten allergy but I would consider brewing it for myself.
 
Wow, Good to hear Chaser. Big kudos for posting your results, thanks.

I may try this myself.
 
im going to give this one a go.. i will be doing 2.5 gallons instead of 5 gallons. planning for Saturday
 
i just gave it a taste from primary.. and wow the taste was great!! i did change it up a little.
2LB 10oz Brown rice syrup
1LB sorghum syrup
4oz dextrose
4oz maltodextrin

hops
1oz german hallertau

yeast WB 06 wheat beer yeast
i did add 1/2oz of coriander and i had a brain fart and added 1oz of sweet orange peel plus when 10min left in boil i added 4oz fresh squeezed orange juice
 
I brewed this one 3 weeks ago and will be bottling today. The taste out of the primary was fantastic. The taste right now is light, crisp, and lemony. It seems like it will be a fantastic summer beer. I can't wait until it's bottle conditioned and ready to go. Here is the recipe I used, in case anyone was curious. It was based on the original recipe and notes that were given.

6 lbs. Sorghum Syrup (60)
1 oz German Perle hop (45)
3 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice (30)
1 lb. Missouri Wildflower Honey (20)
1 oz. Coriander (10)
1 oz. Sweet Orange Peel (10)
1 oz. Bitter Orange Peel (10)
1 oz Mt. Hood Hops (5)
1 packet dry Nottingham Ale Yeast


Brought water to boil, added Sorghum for 60 minutes.

With 45 minutes left, added German Perle hops

With 30 minutes left, added 3 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

At this point, I made sure to stir every five minutes

With 20 minutes left, pulled the pot off the burner and added the honey

Returned pot to boil (started time when it reached its boil)

At 15, added 2 Irish moss tablets

At 10, added 1 oz bitter orange peel, 1 oz coriander, and 1 oz sweet orange peel

At 5, added 1 oz Mount Hood Hops

Opening Gravity was 1.052. Last gravity reading today was 1.014, making the alcohol percentage a respectable 5%.

Thanks for the recipe and notes!
 
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