1st brew and 1st post!

[apexnode]

Hi! I'm a newbie homebrewer and gluten intolerant so this forum is a BLESSING to me. I've made some very simple ciders, and now I've made 1 batch of a very simple beer. I'm still uncertain about things like malting grains and steeping and secondary racking and differences between hops and the science behind the numbers in the recipes you guys throw out there, but hopefully I will learn more. Thanks guys for all your knowledge and sharing!

My first batch of GF beer that I ever made was VERY simple, and to me, AMAZINGLY better than all the commercially available GF beers.

It went like this:

1 gallon batch

1.5 lbs sorghum syrup
.5 oz citra hops

boiled for 60 minutes. sat in the fermenter for 12 days. drank a pint when I racked the rest to quart jars. flat, but FRIKKIN GOOD!

didn't add any priming sugar cause I figured there'd be some sugar/yeast still in it since I didnt put it in secondary... annnnnd nothing happened. so I drank it all flat. and it was still good. VERY hoppy, but I like it that way.

so next time I am going to use some priming sugar.

1 oz to 1 gallon for priming sugar? whats all this I hear about oxidizing the beer when racking? I dont get how to avoid that, or if its actually even an issue?

and I was thinking I might try doing something like this, curious for feedback:

3 gallon batch:

steep 1 lbs toasted oats while bringing to boil
3 lbs sorghum syrup (60 mins)
1 oz cluster hops (60 mins)
32 oz grade b maple syrup (5 mins)

thoughts?

THANKS!

 

[igliashon]

Keeping it simple is great when starting out, a lesson I had to learn the hard way (see my "wall of shame").

There are some really handy apps on the web for formulating recipes, I use "Beer Calculus" at http://hopville.com/. For priming sugar, I use this app: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html, it's really handy and it's produced consistently good results.

Oxidation is only a worry if you splash your beer a lot when racking to secondary or to the bottling bucket. You *want* to splash it when you're racking it from the boil kettle to the fermentor, as that will help aerate the wort (which is essential for a quick, clean, happy fermentation--yeast need oxygen at first!). It's easy to avoid oxidizing your beer when racking, though--just make sure your sanitized siphon hose is sitting in the bottle of whatever you're racking into. When bottling, use a bottling wand (they're cheap), and don't fret if you pick up a bit of air in the siphon hose. A few bubbles won't hurt you.

Your 3 gallon recipe looks just fine, though you'll get better taste if you add half the sorghum at flameout, rather than all of it at the start of the boil. Adding some aroma hops wouldn't hurt either, maybe just another 1 oz of cluster at 15 minutes if you want to keep it simple.

 

[rlbois1]

Hi! I'm a newbie homebrewer and gluten intolerant so this forum is a BLESSING to me. I've made some very simple ciders, and now I've made 1 batch of a very simple beer. I'm still uncertain about things like malting grains and steeping and secondary racking and differences between hops and the science behind the numbers in the recipes you guys throw out there, but hopefully I will learn more. Thanks guys for all your knowledge and sharing!

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat (along with most who post to the GF forum, except we're newbs). I just started drinking my first batch of homebrew last weekend. It was a 5 gallon kit from Homebrewers Outpost. It turned out really well and was pretty straightforward. I believe they sell 5 different GF kits. Below is what came in the kit. Anyway, welcome aboard.