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MobCraftBeer

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This will be my first foray into these forums, if successful, I hope to contribute more (assuming I have anything interesting to say) to this wonderful community. Inspired by an article in Zymurgy magazine claiming that "one should lower one's expectations" of what a gluten free beer should taste like, I accepted the challenge that not only was it possible to create a gluten free beer on par or better than a gluten containing beer, but that it could be done without either the use of artificial enzymes, syrups (of any kind), special additions (read: Clariferm) or specialty/pre-processed adjuncts (flaked maize, quinuoa etc). My ultimate goal is to produce a GF Beer under the exact same circumstances as one would produce an all grain brew, that, when tasted blind against barley or wheat based beers, will completely dominate. I realize that seems like a tall order, and I also realize that many people here have claimed to brew GF beer that tastes better than commercial. I want hard proof that it can be done, and as such will always be measuring anything I produce against some sort of barley based beer in the presence of trained experts. I have already started this process with less than successful results, but now that I have a few failures under my belt, I hope to chronicle my remaining adventure on this forum as an attempt to be honest and serious with myself about my goals in this adventure. A short entry to follow with where I've been so far and what I plan to do next.

Feel free to comment, post links, and even collaborate if you're interested, I'm doing this for science, and as such will never refuse any criticisms, help or advice
 
I would agree with the article if it said "broaden your expectations" for gluten free beer. It is irrational to eat or drink something made from one ingredient and expect it to taste exactly like something made from a different ingredient. GF grains are different than barley or wheat or rye. That doesn't mean they aren't as good, but their flavor profile is different.

But anyways--that doesn't mean you can't make a great brew. Good luck!
 
So are you planning a full all grain, self malted grain, decoction mash? Ale or lager? You mentioned that you will not be using any adjuncts, why is that? Adjuncts are as much a part of barley brewing as gluten-free brewing.

Could you post up the recipe, process and style you are planning? Also the competitive beer you are targeting. This way we can all have some understanding of your plan and perhaps provide some input.

Good luck, looking forwad to seeing the results!
 
I'm not sure why you're so hung up on replicating the barley-brewing process. Have you looked at the chemistry aspects of brewing, like the diastatic power of grains, gelatinization temperatures, etc.? The only grain I'm aware of that has both the necessary diastatic power and a gelatinization temperature in normal mash range is malted oats, which are not available in gluten-free form anywhere, and which (according to what I've read) are dangerous to produce at home because of a toxic mold that can easily contaminate the oats during their germination phase. Some appear to have had limited success with malted buckwheat and malted millet using decoction mashes, but the efficiency seems to be quite a bit reduced from barley brewing...to say nothing of the taste. Bard's has done alright with malted sorghum, but I believe sorghum also requires a decoction mash due to a high gelatinization temperature, and it also appears to be difficult to find and malt at home (haven't heard any success stories with it yet, anyway).

Personally, I have the same goal of going head-to-head with barley beers and winning, but I intend to use every tool in the toolbox to get there. Even doing that, I'm not confident that I can do it for all beer styles, and have had the best success with dark beers. But hey, I'm only one bloke...if you stumble on the holy grail, please share the recipe!
 
I haven't played with malting or mashing at all yet but before brewing anything I spent a lot of time reading whatever information I could find. There are a fair number of reports, scientific papers and methodologies out of Africa regarding the malting and use of Sorghum in beverage production. Many of those include estimates for potential diastatic power and gelatinization temperatures.

I'll go back through my notes and see if I still have the links for the papers I read.

I have attached a fun little paper here. Its a discussion of setting up a undergrad experiment to examine the amount of amylase activity in various common foods. The downside is that there are no defined numbers assigned to the diastatic power, but instead referential values. Still very interesting though.

View attachment Detection of amylase activity from vegetables and fruit in an undergraduate classroom.pdf
 
I'll breifly answer questions stated above, yes im planning on doing all grain, I'll decoct if I have to, I will be self malting all adjuncts (for lack of a better word and only if I deem malting necessary), using ale yeast for now, simply bc the ferments are quicker, bu that doesnt mean I won't ever experiment with Lager, as far as recipes go, right now I'm trying to build a coherent recipe from the ground up, with sound (although not necessarily rock solid) reasoning for every ingredient and proportions thereof. I probably will be pursueing in the direction of a Pale/Nut Brown ale, but for me its far too early to know for sure

I appreciate the comments and feedback so far, I'll give you a little background of where I'm coming from with this project and where I've been. To start, my goal is only to use adjuncts and grains whose only form of processing has been malting and kilning/roasting (or even unprocessed). Being in the industry, I've seen a lot of industry brewers use specialty products or adjuncts to brew thier Gluten-Free beers (Clariferm, Sorghum and Rice Syrups, Flaked adjuncts, artificial enzymes). With a background in food chemistry and microbiology, I beleive it is possible to achieve the exact same flavors as we would find in barley or wheat based beers. My primary goal is to come up with a blend of malted GF grains/seeds/nuts that, when combined, provide a nearly exact flavor profile to equivalent Barley-Based beers and be able to be brewed the same way as a barley-based beers. Living in the Corn growing regions of the US, I decided that field corn was a s good a place as any to start my tests. I malted approx 4lbs of Corn which turned into about 3.8lbs by the time I had dried and removed the rootlets. I let the acrospires grow about 1.5 inchs long, and then proceeded to dry them in my oven on low for 48hrs. Upon drying I did friability tests to determine if the malting had loosened up the otherwise notoriously hard corn kernel. It did. I could easily crush the malted and dried corn kernels with my thumbnail and index finger, and when chewed slowly acquired a sweet taste in my mouth. I also decided to kiln some lightly to reproduce an amber malt. It worked well, because when I bit into the resulting kernels they tasted mildly toasty. Impressed with my success so far I proceeded to mash a small portion of the grains to check for diastatic power, I ground some of the corn malt in a blender and mixed it with 150F water for about 1.5hrs, using a digitial brix reader, the beginning mash read 2.3 Plato, and the end read 12.1 Plato so there was definitly diastatic power in the corn, so I proceeded with a full scale (3gal) brew trial. Mashed for 2hrs, Sparge for 1hr (half the total preboil volume) and boiled for 1.5hrs. I let it cool outside for 8hrs covered (it was winter) and racked into primary with GF dry yeast. It fermented quite happily but upon taste inspection the beer proved to be too thin (for my tastes) and had just a faint hint of cooked veg from the DMS as well as a mild cidery taste, it did however have a very sexy rubyish auburn color, and was as clear as filtered beer. Upon furthur research I discovered two main things about corn related to its status as a potential Malt for brewing:

1.) Corn malt contains far less FAN (free amino Nitrogen) than do any of the traditional brewing grains, this translates to two problems: one is that the yeast need FAN to complete fermentation in full, the cidery (aceteldahyde) taste comes from the yeast simply not having enough FAN to build the proteins required for fermentation to finish, since aceteldahyde is an intermediate in the fermentation of sugar into alcohol via the Embden-Meyerhoff pathway. The other problem is that since there is limited FAN, the diastatic power (enzymes) for Corn have proclivities for producing highly fermentable sugars, which is great for alcohol production, but not good for body and flavor.
2.) DMS is also found in much higher proportions in corn than other grains, and as such lends more cooked vegetable flavor and aroma to it than would a barley based beer, while it is driven off by heat, if in sufficient quantities and not accounted for during kilning, mashing or boiling or cooling it will almost certainly wind up in the finished product

In short, I beleive that corn will be a suitable GF malt for GF brewing only if it is combined with other malts that make up for Corn's deficiencies in diastatic power and free amino nitrogen. From here I will start experimenting with Chestnuts, and will have a post coming up on why very soon. In the meantime, please keep up the feedback and please feel free to correct me if you beleive anything I am saying is incorrect, more importantly, if you feel the need to reproduce anything I'm doing, or have any questions, feel free to ask
 
So, what do you know about food chemistry that makes you so confident that the exact same flavors as wheat and barley can be achieved with gluten-free grains? I don't have a background in food chemistry, but it seems like an exact replication would be quite difficult, if not impossible.

Also, how much time have you spent reviewing the existing literature? There have been several papers written about the suitability of various malted grains for producing beer, including optimized malting and mashing procedures for them to achieve maximum extract potential. I strongly suggest doing your "further research" before conducting more of your own trials...you might save a lot of time and money that way! :mug: Goodness knows I could have saved myself some trouble in the past by doing my homework....
 
I've long believed that there is a combination of GF grains that would get you closer than any single grain could. This is how it works with GF baking.

I've recently made my best, light GF beer to date. I wanted to play with my new johnson controller and some enzymes. I popped 2lbs of popcon in an air popper, put it into a slow cooker w/ 3qts of water (I think), added enzymes and used the controller to hold the mask temp for a couple hours. I then removed the popcorn and used the wort in my 3 gallon recipe w/ sorghum syrup.

It's only my first attempt at this recipe, but I like it enough that it is worth repeating. It seemed to lessen the 100% sorghum twang. Maybe the corn flavor was sweet enough to add balance, where rice syrup had failed. Or maybe I just had a better ratio than I used in my sorghum and brown rice syrup batches.
 
I don't mean to sound trollish here or anything, but I honestly don't believe you can make a GF beer that tastes exactly like a barley or wheat based beer. Can you -make a GF beer that tastes really good? I'm sure you can. Can you make a GF beer that tastes better than a wheat or barley based beer? hey I don't think I've had a beer thats worse than Schlitz or Steel Reserve so I think you've got a chance :p Seriously though, this thread just reminded me of the time a vegan told me "you won't even be able to tell these ribs aren't pork!" you can probably guess how they tasted.. any who, I wish you luck in your brewing adventures; ignore anything you find to be unhelpful.
 
I don't think you are being a 'Troll' but I do think you are being rude. Those people live that way by choice. We don't. We are just trying to make best of a bad situation. I have made beers that taste very similar to barley based beers and actually taste better. Although just because a beer is not made from barley, doesn't mean it is not a beer. Africans have made beer from Sorghum for centuries. The Chinese have probably made it from Buckwheat for centuries. Even your Mister Washington I believe made it from corn? So you see calling something a beer does not mean it has to be made exclusively from barley, wheat or rye. But saying it is not a beer because it is not made from those ingredients, and saying it would not be very good is very closed minded. I only ask that if you are going to comment in this forum, that it be productive, not insulting.
 
So, what do you know about food chemistry that makes you so confident that the exact same flavors as wheat and barley can be achieved with gluten-free grains? I don't have a background in food chemistry, but it seems like an exact replication would be quite difficult, if not impossible.

Also, how much time have you spent reviewing the existing literature? There have been several papers written about the suitability of various malted grains for producing beer, including optimized malting and mashing procedures for them to achieve maximum extract potential. I strongly suggest doing your "further research" before conducting more of your own trials...you might save a lot of time and money that way! :mug: Goodness knows I could have saved myself some trouble in the past by doing my homework....

I have spent a about a year and half reviewing literature on the subject and all of my reading (thus far) led me to conclude that no single GF grain would be able to cut it for a mash, I have been able to find no literature thus far that provides a satisfactory answer for why a blend of GF grains wouldn't be able to replicate the flavors of abarley mash. In so far as my knowledge of food chemistry is concerned, there is one single underlying reaction that occurs throughout a myriad of foods, and always makes them taste better. The reaction to which I am referring to of course, is the Mailliard Browning Reaction. Mailliard Browning occurs whenever reducing sugars (glucose, maltose, galactose but NOT fructose) come into contact with free amino nitrogen ends and combine to form complex flavor molecules in the presence of heat. This is why steaks turn brown and taste better after they've been cooked. Why bronzed melted cheese is prized on pizza, why when you bake bread you whole house fills with the aroma. And its also the primary driver of flavor reactions in beer, melanoidin malt is an excellent example. Melanoidin malt is produced under circumstances that maximize mailliard browning reactions, which means tons of free ended amino nitrogen, tons of reducing sugar, and tons of heat. Every where these three things are found we have mailliard browning, so its no small step for me to suspect that the same things can happen in other things that don't contain gluten. I also don't think SPR-GRN was being rude, the whole point of this thread is to motivate me to provide physical evidence that supports or discredits my assumptions, not what others have to say, as such I invite all to try and replicate what I am doing if they feel my experimental methods are flawed in some way.
 
Fascinating bit about maillard reactions, and also your previous bit about FAN during fermentation (and insufficiency of it casuing the production of acetaldehyde). That explains why a few folks here have had success reducing the off-taste of sorghum by adding DAP to the kettle. However, in my experience, lighter beers--wherein the malted barley has been subjected to comparatively little Mailliard browning--are no easier to mimic than darker beers; in fact, the converse is true (at least in my experience), darker beers are easier to mimic than lighter beers. So there's got to be more to it than just Mailliard browning.

So, has your research suggested any promising combinations in particular? I'd think that by studying the unique pros and cons of each grain, you could figure out how to combine them to balance the cons of one with the pros of another--find a grain with low DP but high FAN to combine with a grain with high DP but low FAN (or something along those lines).

BTW, I'm about to begin conducting some research of my own using a combination of malted buckwheat and roasted chestnuts. I will be producing some crystal-malt, some munich or vienna, and probably also some roasted unmalted buckwheat. You may be interested in my results.
 
I don't mean to sound trollish here or anything, but I honestly don't believe you can make a GF beer that tastes exactly like a barley or wheat based beer. Can you -make a GF beer that tastes really good? I'm sure you can. Can you make a GF beer that tastes better than a wheat or barley based beer? hey I don't think I've had a beer thats worse than Schlitz or Steel Reserve so I think you've got a chance :p Seriously though, this thread just reminded me of the time a vegan told me "you won't even be able to tell these ribs aren't pork!" you can probably guess how they tasted.. any who, I wish you luck in your brewing adventures; ignore anything you find to be unhelpful.

I agree with you that a veggie burger does not taste like beef, but I don't think it is as far fetched that GF beer can taste like regular beer. Millet is a lot closer to barley than soy is to animal flesh.
 
I don't think you are being a 'Troll' but I do think you are being rude. Those people live that way by choice. We don't. We are just trying to make best of a bad situation. I have made beers that taste very similar to barley based beers and actually taste better. Although just because a beer is not made from barley, doesn't mean it is not a beer. Africans have made beer from Sorghum for centuries. The Chinese have probably made it from Buckwheat for centuries. Even your Mister Washington I believe made it from corn? So you see calling something a beer does not mean it has to be made exclusively from barley, wheat or rye. But saying it is not a beer because it is not made from those ingredients, and saying it would not be very good is very closed minded. I only ask that if you are going to comment in this forum, that it be productive, not insulting.

At no time did I say that GF beer wasn't beer, hence the reason I typed "GF beer" every time in my post. "beer" in my mind can be made from a variety of ingredients, and the only "law" I'm aware of that dictates what beer must be made of is the German beer purity law Reinheitsgebot; but I sure don't follow that.
I wasn't saying GF beer is not beer, I was saying that I don't think a GF beer can be made to taste exactly like a barley/wheat beer. I've had GF beer (of course only what is commercially available) to me, it did not match the flavor of any barley/wheat beer I've had. I should have been more specific as well, it's not just the flavor, it's also the body, aroma, mouth feel; all aspects of drinking a beer that I refer to when i say "taste".

Example: Pepsi doesn't even taste like Pepsi anymore, corn syrup, although also a simple sugar, does not taste like cane sugar; no matter how Pepsi tweaks the formula, new Pepsi will not taste like Pepsi; personally I prefer new Pepsi over old Pepsi as I grew up with it, but it does not make them the same. Much in the same way that a GF beer has the potential to taste better than a barley/wheat beer, I don't think they will ever taste the same.

I assume when you said "those people" you meant vegans, and although many do live that way by choice, there are some that have a medical condition that makes the digestion of meat unbearable. Similarly, there are people who can process gluten, but choose not to consume it for a myriad of reasons; I don't want you to get the impression that everyone who drinks GF beer has celiac or a gluten intolerance. I personally want to dabble in GF beers for a couple reasons; firstly I do know someone with Celiac disease that started as a gluten intolerance when they were younger and progressed quickly, they loved beer before their doctor told them not to drink it anymore. Secondly, a person I work with does not consume gluten because he read some research about it's damaging effects to the human body.
Both of these people have tried GF beer and found it lacking, I figured as a homebrewer I could give them a hand by trying out a batch or two, which will hopefully not have that sorghum twang to it, or at least have it muted enough that it can be ignored.

I agree with you that a veggie burger does not taste like beef, but I don't think it is as far fetched that GF beer can taste like regular beer. Millet is a lot closer to barley than soy is to animal flesh.

Very true statement, however Pork/chicken/turkey are much closer to beef than soy is; I still haven't come across a turkey burger or pork/turkey meatloaf that tastes like beef.

I appreciate the effort MobCraftBeer is putting forth, and look forward to the results; if a GF beer can be produced that is close to the flavor of a barley/wheat beer someone with a background in food chemistry will have the best chance.

again, I wish you all luck in your brewing adventures; ignore anything you find to be unhelpful.
 
I just feel compelled to jump in and post to this thread. I have been playing around with gluten free home brewing for about two and a half years. I have given bottles of my beer to a couple of brewmasters I know without telling them exactly what they were tasting. Neither had any clue that the beer was anything other than regular beer. One even accused me of being a liar when I revealed that the beer was gluten free.

I have been so encouraged by the results, that I filed a patent application for my process and formed a company called Quinoa Malt and Beverages, LLC. We formed 3 DBA's, q-Malting, q-Brewing, and q-Distilling. The names give away our gluten free ingredients and what we plan on manufacturing.

At this time, we are working with a consulting company to help us put together a business plan so we can go out and raise enough funds to realize the dream. We probably are 18 - 24 months away from being in production, but our beer is amazing and will blow the gluten free community away...
 
Very true statement, however Pork/chicken/turkey are much closer to beef than soy is; I still haven't come across a turkey burger or pork/turkey meatloaf that tastes like beef.

I appreciate the effort MobCraftBeer is putting forth, and look forward to the results; if a GF beer can be produced that is close to the flavor of a barley/wheat beer someone with a background in food chemistry will have the best chance.

again, I wish you all luck in your brewing adventures; ignore anything you find to be unhelpful.

There are lots of other animals than pigs, chickens, turkeys and cows. I know for a fact that moose taste likes beef. Horse is supposed to taste like beef, but sweeter. Frog legs taste like chicken. It's very possilbe that there is some grain, seed, or nut that you aren't familiar with that tastes like barley. Or as the OP suggested, it might me a mixture of grains to get close.
 
Igliashon, I'd be interested to hear/se your results on chestnuts as I'll be doing mashing experiments with malted corn and barley (control) soon. The main reason I will choose chestnuts is because they have the most potential from what I've seen to be able to mimic flavors found in beer. Also in regards to your post, the reason it is easier to replicate darker beers is because darker beers use darker roasted malts as opposed to kilned or toasted malts. Darker beers rely on mild to intense carbonization (roasting) of the malt to impart flavor and color more than they rely on Mailliard browning reactions, sure some of the components are still present, but not in nearly the amounts you see in toasted or kilned malts. I have come up with a list of grains/nuts that I will start experimenting with based on reasearch and regional availability (why Import Quinoa from south america when there are probably just as many useful adjuncts in your area?). This list is as follows:

Corn: Floriani Red Flint variety
Chestnuts
Hazelnuts
Wild Rice (hey its the upper midwest)
Buckwheat (have already tried Malting it and Kilning it, and was at first not impressed with the flavor and the aroma, am going to revisit buckwheat again, this time more scrupulously.)

So all in all here are my current plans and hopefully will be realized in my next post:
Have ordered Floriani Red Flint corn for experimental purposes of flavor and diastatic power trials (my experience with plain'ole field corn leaves something to be desired, but there's potential nonetheless)
Have ordered chestnuts for side by side comparisons of Corn Malt vs. Barley malt mashing
Will Start Malting my remaining stockpile of Buckwheat, being very careful to control and monitor malting and kilning conditions
 
I just feel compelled to jump in and post to this thread. I have been playing around with gluten free home brewing for about two and a half years. I have given bottles of my beer to a couple of brewmasters I know without telling them exactly what they were tasting. Neither had any clue that the beer was anything other than regular beer. One even accused me of being a liar when I revealed that the beer was gluten free.

I have been so encouraged by the results, that I filed a patent application for my process and formed a company called Quinoa Malt and Beverages, LLC. We formed 3 DBA's, q-Malting, q-Brewing, and q-Distilling. The names give away our gluten free ingredients and what we plan on manufacturing.

At this time, we are working with a consulting company to help us put together a business plan so we can go out and raise enough funds to realize the dream. We probably are 18 - 24 months away from being in production, but our beer is amazing and will blow the gluten free community away...

I'm looking forward to trying your gf beer, I would prefer not to wait 24 months so if you would be willing to share one of your recipes and your process I'd love yo give it a go, obviously I understand if you don't want to as it has become a business venture for you. Either way I'm glad to hear you've come across a recipe and a process that works.

There are lots of other animals than pigs, chickens, turkeys and cows. I know for a fact that moose taste likes beef. Horse is supposed to taste like beef, but sweeter. Frog legs taste like chicken. It's very possilbe that there is some grain, seed, or nut that you aren't familiar with that tastes like barley. Or as the OP suggested, it might me a mixture of grains to get close.

Yes there are many other animals beside the few examples I gave, I was simply providing readily available (supermarket) examples; having previously lived in Vermont I've eaten my fair share of wild game, however I have yet to come across an animal that tastes exactly like beef; true animals taste similar to other animals, I've also been told that alligator tastes like chicken but have yet to try it for myself.
Even when you compare wild game to farm raised game the flavor is different (eg. Turkey). When you compare very closely related breeds of foul, the flavor is different. Is Cornish hen an acceptable substitute for chicken? yes but they don't taste exactly the same. If you served me Cornish hen on a plate next to chicken on a plate (assuming just meat) would I be able to tell you which was chicken and which was Cornish hen? no I couldn't; however would there be a noticeable flavor difference? Yes there would.
 
Bbbf-

I'm curious what your startup costs look like. I am on the opposite side of the road from you. I have investors but not a final product.
 
I'm looking forward to trying your gf beer, I would prefer not to wait 24 months so if you would be willing to share one of your recipes and your process I'd love yo give it a go, obviously I understand if you don't want to as it has become a business venture for you. Either way I'm glad to hear you've come across a recipe and a process that works.



Yes there are many other animals beside the few examples I gave, I was simply providing readily available (supermarket) examples; having previously lived in Vermont I've eaten my fair share of wild game, however I have yet to come across an animal that tastes exactly like beef; true animals taste similar to other animals, I've also been told that alligator tastes like chicken but have yet to try it for myself.
Even when you compare wild game to farm raised game the flavor is different (eg. Turkey). When you compare very closely related breeds of foul, the flavor is different. Is Cornish hen an acceptable substitute for chicken? yes but they don't taste exactly the same. If you served me Cornish hen on a plate next to chicken on a plate (assuming just meat) would I be able to tell you which was chicken and which was Cornish hen? no I couldn't; however would there be a noticeable flavor difference? Yes there would.
The recipe would not be easy for you to replicate, since it requires starting with raw quinoa, malting at very specific temperatures, deculming the rootletts, roasting, mashing, etc. Since you are close by, in CT, perhaps I can somehow get a bottle to you?
 
My bad, that was supposed to be for q-brewing. Read the quotations wrong.
We have not yet completed our business plan. We are currently doing some trials in Canada from which we will be able to more precisely and accurately develop our proforma. We will need to raise quite a bit of money, but have not decided how we plan to do that yet.
 
Starting to malt the Buckwheat today, doing an alternating 8hr steep with 4hr air rest for the grain until i see rootlets, then spreading over a dish towel and spraying until the rootlets become twice the length of the grain. The buckwheat came from the bulk aisle of Outpost Natural Foods, and I've had success with malting it and even growing whole plants from this buckwheat in the past (for Honey, I started beekeeping about two years ago and buckwheat honey is unparalleled for flavor IMHO). I have also ordered 1lb of Floriani Red Flint Corn and if I have time today am going to see if I can order some dried whole chestnuts (kinda difficult to find this time of year)

Buckwheat.jpg
 
The recipe would not be easy for you to replicate, since it requires starting with raw quinoa, malting at very specific temperatures, deculming the rootletts, roasting, mashing, etc. Since you are close by, in CT, perhaps I can somehow get a bottle to you?

I sent you a PM, maybe we can figure something out.
 
Found 5lb Bags of Dried Chestnuts for $55, am going to order some, Floriani Red Flint Corn came in, am going to attempt to malt half of it and save the other half for planting this year in the garden. The acrospires on the Buckwheat are just starting to protrude, am now going to swtich them to a damp towel exposed to the air and spritz them with water every time they seem to dry up as well as turn the grain once a day until the acrospire reaches approx the length of the grain, making sure to keep it away from direct sunlight (to prevent Photosynthesis). Pics to follow
 
I'm ordering from the other because its a more local supplier to my region, with most of the chestnuts they sell grown in the midwest, yes they're a bit more expensive, but my other primary goal is to source ingredients locally, from suppliers/growers I know and trust.

Malting phase of both the corn and the buckwheat have been completed and am now patiently waiting for the next 48 hours for them to dry in my oven. The Buckwheat malted MUCH faster than the corn, as was to be expected. Once thoroughly dry, will do small scale mashing trials to determine the diastatic power and sugar potential of both batches separately and together. I will do this using a calibrated digital brix meter and a standard infusion mashing method.

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Have been trying unsuccessfuly for the last few weeks to order chestnuts, I guess I'll just have to wait until Fall....in other news I am getting ready to plant some of the Floriani red flint corn for spring (it malted well, but I don't have enough right now to do much with), and also have a few pounds of field corn and buckwheat malt, both of which turned out well, I will be doing mashing experiments next week to determine sugar content and diastatic power of the respective grains. In the meantime I will be relying on Hazelnuts in the stead of chestnuts for malting and mashing experiments and flavor profile development. Malting experiments with raw hazelnuts to start later this week. I did brew a hazelnut amber beer a few weeks ago with roasted hazelnuts in the mash and this turned out well, lots of rich nutty flavor, so we'll see how it does in GF beer....
 
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