Sorghum extract brew: rice malt or sugar? rice/buckwheat water from previous brews?

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bingggo

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Howdy folks,

I brewed the recipe below a while back and it was simple but tasty and enjoyed by myself (a non-GF person) and GF friends as reportedly superior to the Aussie commercial GF brews. My only tweak, from memory, was accidentally doubling the maltodextrine. Didn't seem to hurt :)

I have been wondering what this brew would be like if I replaced the raw sugar with rice malt syrup, or say a fifth of the sorghum syrup with rice malt. Do you think that would improve it?

Another question: I made the a GF brew a while back that involved soaking buckwheat and red rice in hot water before I drained and toasted them. I froze the drained soaking water (dark red) in case it came in useful later. I'm thinking of adding maybe a pint or two to this recipe, which I guess will give it an amber colour and possibly an earthy taste. Sound like a good or bad idea? :)

Cheers,
B
-
Original:
21.5 litres (about 5.5 gallons)
•6.2 lbs / 2.8 Kg Sorghum Syrup (prior to boil)
•14 oz / 400 g Raw Sugar (prior to boil)
•4 oz Tapioca based maltodextrine (prior to boil)
•0.5 oz / 15 g Amarillo Hops (60 min)
•0.5 oz / 15 g Amarillo Hops (45 min)
•0.5 oz / 15 g Amarillo Hops (15 min)
•1 Whirlfloc Tablet (15 min)
•1 oz / 30 g Amarillo Hops (flameout)
•1 tsp yeast nutrient (flameout)
•2 pkgs US-05 Yeast
 
I've been learning a lot on this forum, but still interested in any thoughts on the above :) I did add the rice/buckwheat soak liquid to a brew which resulted in a lot of extra solids settling out, a nice amber colour, and maybe a slight earthy flavour which was fine.
 
I think the recipe in the original post here looks pretty good. My only advice would be to replace your raw sugar with Belgian Candy syrup or a good honey and use 0.5 lb of maltodextrin.

My extract batch standard for a 5 gallon (US, not imperial) was to use the following:
0.5 lb maltodextrin
1.0 lb Begian Candy Syrup (syrup, not hard candy crystals)
0.5 lb 100% Buckwheat honey
1.0 lb steeped malt and/or roasted grain
The rest was sorghum syrup to hit OG = 1.060.

I ended up using almost exclusively Amarillo and Cascade hops with sorghum syrup batches because they just paired best. I also often dry hopped an oz.

The rice syrup or solids leaves things a bit thin, so I only used it on partial mashes to boost the gravity if my efficiency was lower than expected.

GF batches always seem to produce a lot of trub, but it settles out and is no big deal. I always rack to a secondary after a week and always let it go 3 weeks before bottling or transferring to keg. Because of the extra trub, I planned my batches for 5.5 gallons to insure that I finished close to 5 gallons.

I usually pitch 1.5 packets of US-05 because I can't be bothered to hydrate prior to pitching. I just sprinkle over the top and let it rip. Using 2 packets is probably better than 1 if you don't hydrate the yeast in advance.

Not sure if that helps, but that is my perspective!

Cheers!
 
I think the recipe in the original post here looks pretty good. My only advice would be to replace your raw sugar with Belgian Candy syrup or a good honey and use 0.5 lb of maltodextrin.

My extract batch standard for a 5 gallon (US, not imperial) was to use the following:
0.5 lb maltodextrin
1.0 lb Begian Candy Syrup (syrup, not hard candy crystals)
0.5 lb 100% Buckwheat honey
1.0 lb steeped malt and/or roasted grain
The rest was sorghum syrup to hit OG = 1.060.

I ended up using almost exclusively Amarillo and Cascade hops with sorghum syrup batches because they just paired best. I also often dry hopped an oz.

The rice syrup or solids leaves things a bit thin, so I only used it on partial mashes to boost the gravity if my efficiency was lower than expected.

GF batches always seem to produce a lot of trub, but it settles out and is no big deal. I always rack to a secondary after a week and always let it go 3 weeks before bottling or transferring to keg. Because of the extra trub, I planned my batches for 5.5 gallons to insure that I finished close to 5 gallons.

I usually pitch 1.5 packets of US-05 because I can't be bothered to hydrate prior to pitching. I just sprinkle over the top and let it rip. Using 2 packets is probably better than 1 if you don't hydrate the yeast in advance.

Not sure if that helps, but that is my perspective!

Cheers!
5+ years later, you probably won't see this but...I've brewed GF for a year, made about 15 batches. My GF brews are VERY similar to yours. 2 questions: What flavor/other quality does buckwheat honey add? Have you used soft Belgian candi sugar, does it perform like the liquid? I wish I would have found your post months ago! Cheers!
 
15 batches in a year. Wow! well done!

I got the 100% Buckwheat honey advice from other brewers at the time. I never experimented with other types of honey. I just stayed with it even though it was more expensive than regular honey. With sorghum, you are always fighting the twang and since no other single ingredient works by itself I think there is a benefit to having several other ingredients in addition to the sorghum. Trick is to get the mix you like.

Belgian candy crystals is not much better than just regular sugar. The Belgian Candy Syrup is different. It has been subjected to the Maillard reaction and some level of caramalization. My advice is to use the Belgian candy syrup over candy sugar crystals.

You are obviously a serious brewer. Have you considered going all grain? You will never go back :)
 
I appreciate the advice. I was a traditional all grain brewer for almost 25 years before several in my family were diagnosed with celiac's. I love brewing so I jumped into g-free brewing with dedicated g-free equipment (mill, fermenters, kegs, etc.). Results have been pretty good. The more I diversify the fermentables (less sorghum) the better. The availablility of g-free malts for steeping has probably improved a bit over the past few years. I am going to do some enzyme experimenting with the sorghum LME to see if I can minimize the twang in any way. I'll let you know if I have any success. All grain is on my to do list in the future for sure!
I really appreciate your response, thanks so much! Cheers!
 
I started about 10 years ago directly into GF as I am the one with celiac. I went all grain pretty early but it was a challenge with so little natural enzyme strength in the grains we use. Lots of tricks to tease out what was there and then tons of grain and/or boil down because of low efficiency. Everything changed when the professionals started malting and creating enzymes that would work for GF. There has never been a better time to enter GF all grain! You can get very close to the efficiencies and styles that you got with your barley all grain.

You probably already have found the good resources, but just in case:
Zero tolerance is an excellent resource - Zero Tolerance Gluten Free Homebrew Club
They have a community on Facebook if you can stomach Facebook, I can't.
For enzymes, starting 39 minutes into this video was really helpful for me!:


There are still a few of us that frequent this forum. Cheers!
 
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