Hey All, I've been brewing for a little over 4 years now, and a few of my friends have asked about making a gluten free beer given their intolerance. I'm trying to soak up as much info as possible from some of the existing threads on the forum, but had some questions I'm hoping people can give some insight towards.
I plan to pick up some Redbridge to see what kind of flavors are out there, and if the local stores have it some New Grist by Lakefront Brewery (I hear it's not that bad).
1. So the typical "sorghum" flavor that people describe as citrusy/fruity/sweet...is that something that can be completely offset by a stronger hop profile? I'm thinking based on the Briess 1:1 substitute claim you could make an IPA-ish beer with stronger bittering additions (centennail, columbus, warrior...) to counter-balance that. Am I wrong?
2. Does boil time affect the "off" flavors produced by the sorghum? In typical all-grain brewing, especially with pilsner malts, a longer boil time decreases the risk of having to much DMS in the beer. Would going to a 90-minute or longer boil be beneficial with the sorghum syrup?
3. I read on one of the threads that aging the beer longer can help the "off" flavors mellow out. Is is best to keep longer in primary as well as longer in the bottle or just 1 of the 2?
4. I assume that the regular maintenance and cleaning of brewing equipment would be sufficient, but would I need a dedicated fermenter for gluten free to ensure a true "gluten free" beer? I would think StarSan or Iodophor would take the risk away, but again you guys would know better than I do. To that end, if you need a dedicated fermenting vessel, I'd assume you'd need dedicated Gluten Free bottles!
I think those cover my initial questions. Hopefully some of you who've been at the GF thing for a while can help me out. When I get around to a recipe I'll definitely let everyone know what I do and how it goes.
Cheers!
I plan to pick up some Redbridge to see what kind of flavors are out there, and if the local stores have it some New Grist by Lakefront Brewery (I hear it's not that bad).
1. So the typical "sorghum" flavor that people describe as citrusy/fruity/sweet...is that something that can be completely offset by a stronger hop profile? I'm thinking based on the Briess 1:1 substitute claim you could make an IPA-ish beer with stronger bittering additions (centennail, columbus, warrior...) to counter-balance that. Am I wrong?
2. Does boil time affect the "off" flavors produced by the sorghum? In typical all-grain brewing, especially with pilsner malts, a longer boil time decreases the risk of having to much DMS in the beer. Would going to a 90-minute or longer boil be beneficial with the sorghum syrup?
3. I read on one of the threads that aging the beer longer can help the "off" flavors mellow out. Is is best to keep longer in primary as well as longer in the bottle or just 1 of the 2?
4. I assume that the regular maintenance and cleaning of brewing equipment would be sufficient, but would I need a dedicated fermenter for gluten free to ensure a true "gluten free" beer? I would think StarSan or Iodophor would take the risk away, but again you guys would know better than I do. To that end, if you need a dedicated fermenting vessel, I'd assume you'd need dedicated Gluten Free bottles!
I think those cover my initial questions. Hopefully some of you who've been at the GF thing for a while can help me out. When I get around to a recipe I'll definitely let everyone know what I do and how it goes.
Cheers!