Brewing up a Gluten Free Beer this weekend- anyone else?

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If you were doing the brown again, how would you change your original recipe? What did the taste come out as? Which ingredient powered the flavor? I ask this because I have never attempted a malty GF beer...since we don't really have a malt I like the flavor of.
 
I will be doing it again soon. My most recent changes are a full boil and slightly increasing the IBU's. I'll also be upping the molasses and maple syrup and adding some BRS. The OG is 1.053 for now but I might play around with that.

I thought the beer was fantastic, it turned out wayyy better than I thought it was going to. The sorghum taste was partly there but there were other things present- it's been a long time since I've had it. I'll say though, I really thought that the blackstrap molasses really came into play in this beer. I was worried that it might be too overpowering but it didn't come out that way in the finished product. I'll probably refine the recipe a little bit but it will be mostly identical to the original.
 
Lcasanova said:
Anyone else brewing this weekend? I'm brewing up my Gluten Free Pumpkin Ale Saturday- hopefully.
Click to expand...

Planning to brew up my 2nd ever batch of GF beer. My goal is to do a basic sorghum beer that tastes pretty good, and I can do easily and consistently. I figure that will be a good starting point to branch off and try different styles and flavors.

I am going with a Sorghum Pale Ale recipe from the site I ordered the Briess syrup, but substituting 2-3# of Brown Rice Syrup for sorghum.

My first batch of GF beer turned out surprisingly drinkable, considering I did not have a clue what I was doing, and now I think this hobby may have me hooked :drunk:
 
Nice, maybe you could do 3# sorghum and 3# BRS- I know Midwest Supplies sells 3# or 6# of Sorghum Syrup. I think you'll be happy with a Pale Ale, is it the Simple Simon recipe?
 
Lcasanova said:
Nice, maybe you could do 3# sorghum and 3# BRS- I know Midwest Supplies sells 3# or 6# of Sorghum Syrup. I think you'll be happy with a Pale Ale, is it the Simple Simon recipe?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I could do 3#. Thanks for the feedback. I already bought 3 1# jars of the Lundberg BRS, but I was not sure how far to go with it.

The recipe was from Austin Homebrew:
Recipe for Gluten-Free Pale Ale (5 Gallon Batch)
6.6 lb. White Sorghum Syrup
1 oz. Cascade hops** (boil for 60 minutes)
1 oz. Cascade hops** (boil 2 minutes)
1 oz. Cascade hops** (dry hop 3-7 days)
1 pkg. Fermentis US-05 dry yeast (gluten free)
1 cup Honey (for bottling)
**Also, try this recipe with other American hops like Ahtanum, Amarillo, Glacier, Palisade, etc. If using high-alpha varieties, such as Columbus, use only 0.5 oz. for the bittering addition.

I will do the 3#/3# sorghum/brs, and I already have the Cascade.
I am not sure about the Honey for bottling. I was thinking about just going with corn priming sugar, which I still have on hand from my first batch.
 
I got sorghum, time, and 2 empty primaries. Gonna give a go at your pumpkin spice and something else, brown or suggestions. Got a big quinoa ipa in secondary and a light quinoa ipa on oak chips bottle that up in a week or so
 
JerryE said:
Yeah, I could do 3#. Thanks for the feedback. I already bought 3 1# jars of the Lundberg BRS, but I was not sure how far to go with it.

The recipe was from Austin Homebrew:
Recipe for Gluten-Free Pale Ale (5 Gallon Batch)
6.6 lb. White Sorghum Syrup
1 oz. Cascade hops** (boil for 60 minutes)
1 oz. Cascade hops** (boil 2 minutes)
1 oz. Cascade hops** (dry hop 3-7 days)
1 pkg. Fermentis US-05 dry yeast (gluten free)
1 cup Honey (for bottling)
**Also, try this recipe with other American hops like Ahtanum, Amarillo, Glacier, Palisade, etc. If using high-alpha varieties, such as Columbus, use only 0.5 oz. for the bittering addition.

I will do the 3#/3# sorghum/brs, and I already have the Cascade.
I am not sure about the Honey for bottling. I was thinking about just going with corn priming sugar, which I still have on hand from my first batch.
Click to expand...

I don't know much about using honey at bottling either, I'd use corn sugar myself. Let us know how this one turns out, I've been thinking about an all Cascade Pale Ale at some point.
 
DirtbagHomebrew said:
I got sorghum, time, and 2 empty primaries. Gonna give a go at your pumpkin spice and something else, brown or suggestions. Got a big quinoa ipa in secondary and a light quinoa ipa on oak chips bottle that up in a week or so
Click to expand...

I think now would be a good time to brew a brown. If you do mine let me know what you think, I'll be brewing it again in a month or so with slight revisions.
 
I'll give it a shot with the revisions you mentioned here above. More backstrap and more maple syrup. And well see what hops are at the lbhs. I've got some cascade ready for pickin in the backyard. Thanks for everything!
 
DirtbagHomebrew said:
I'll give it a shot with the revisions you mentioned here above. More backstrap and more maple syrup. And well see what hops are at the lbhs. I've got some cascade ready for pickin in the backyard. Thanks for everything!
Click to expand...

Let me know when you are ready to make a GF pale, I have a recipe that I think will really rock. I may just make it when I get some time.

Make sure if you are using wet hops to use approx 3-5x as much weight-wise. Visually it will appear to be the same amount as normal though. Or, you can let em sit on a window screen with a fan over em for a few days.
 
Lcasanova said:
I don't know much about using honey at bottling either, I'd use corn sugar myself. Let us know how this one turns out, I've been thinking about an all Cascade Pale Ale at some point.
Click to expand...

I have an all Cascade Pale Ale fermenting at the moment. I dry hopped with 1 oz. Cascade a week ago. The recipe was from the Breiss website and it is called "Hoppy to be Gluten-Free Pale Ale."


Hoppy to be Gluten-Free Pale Ale
Recipe for 5 US gallons (19L)
Description: The higher BU’s and aroma hops blend well with the sorghum flavor to make a beer reminiscent of Pale
Ales brewed in Northern California.
Quantity Ingredients Comments
7.5 lbs BriesSweet™ White Sorghum Syrup 45DE High Maltose
1 oz Cascade Hops (6.5% AA) (Beginning of boil)
0.5 oz Cascade Hops 5 minutes before end of boil
1 oz Cascade Hops End of Boil
1 oz Cascade Hops Dry hop
2 pkgs Nottingham dry ale yeast or Wyeast 1272GF gluten free yeast
1 cup Honey Bottling
Brewing Procedures:
Mix syrup and water and bring to boil. Add bittering hops. Boil 40 minutes. Add second hops. Add remaining hops
according to schedule. Quickly chill wort. Ferment for 1.5 weeks at 65-70º F. Add dry hops after primary fermentation or
after transfer to secondary. Force carbonate or bottle condition with honey (recommended).
OG 1.056
FG 1.016
ABV 5.2%
IBUs 37


I followed this recipe exactly so far, but I plan on using corn sugar for bottling. It looks and smells good so far three weeks into fermentation.
 
Lcasanova said:
Do you really NEED 2 packages of yeast? I've always just used 1 in my 5.5 gallon batches.
Click to expand...

I don't think it hurts. I don't use any yeast nutrient or make a yeast starter, and at $1.99 a package I feel it is cheap insurance for a good fermentation. As far as taste, I cannot tell a difference between a 1 or 2 package batch.
 
I brewed up a brown based on Lcasanova's recipe.
Bucket was bubbling away first thing the next morning and smells great.
This could become a regular.

6.00 lb Sorghum Liquid Extract
1.00 lb Rice Extract Syrup
1.00 lb Buckwheat, roasted
1.00 lb Millet, roasted

1.00 oz Target [11.00 %] (60 min)
0.75 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min)
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min)

1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5.0 min)
8.00 oz Malto-Dextrine (Boil 5.0 min)

0.50 lb Candi Sugar, Dark
0.50 lb Maple Syrup
0.50 lb Molasses

1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Any comments on the recipe are appreciated as this is only my 4th batch.:)
 
ok so i did 2 batches and i tweaked the s** out of em because, well, it was slim pickins at the brew shop. and i must say these totally made my house smell like pumpkin pie all weekend.

so batch one

pumpkin spice ale

.5# toasted buckwheat
.5# toasted millet
steeped for 1 hour @ ~150F

3.5# sorghum syrup
2# clover honey
.5 # rice syrup solids
.25# dark belgian candi sugar
5oz agave syrup

2oz yakima gold@ 60min
29oz pumpkin puree (baked with pumpkin spice sugar for 350F 1 hour ) @ 30min
1 tsp pumpkin spice @ 15min
1 tsp irish moss @ 15min
3 tsp yeastnutrient @ 15min

im really lazy and dont take gravities.. though i really should.... na F it

then for the second version

pumpkin spice IPA

.5# toasted buckwheat
.5# toasted millet
steeped for 1 hour @ ~150F

3.5# sorghum syrup
2# clover honey
.5 # rice syrup solids
.25# dark belgian candi sugar
5oz agave syrup

29oz pumpkin puree (baked with pumpkin spice sugar for 350F 1 hour ) @ 30min
1 tsp pumpkin spice @ 15min

2 oz mt hood @ 60min
2 oz sterling @ 30min
1 oz czech saaz @ 15min
1 tsp irish moss @ 15min
3 tsp yeastnutrient @ 15min

ill toss another 1-2 oz of czech saaz into the secondary

once again i dont take gravities and i prolly shout
 
JerryE said:
Yeah, I could do 3#. Thanks for the feedback. I already bought 3 1# jars of the Lundberg BRS, but I was not sure how far to go with it.

The recipe was from Austin Homebrew:
...

I will do the 3#/3# sorghum/brs, and I already have the Cascade.
I am not sure about the Honey for bottling. I was thinking about just going with corn priming sugar, which I still have on hand from my first batch.
Click to expand...

I did the recipe as described, basically 3 lbs white sorghum syrup and 3 lbs BRS for a 5 gallon batch. I did the hop schedule per the recipe using Cascade. It smelled great, but I was surprised at how light colored it came out due to the BRS. I had a couple questions:

- The OG was 1.040. This was lower than what I had in mind, but I decided against correcting it. Is it a reasonable guess that it should finish at about 1.010 (~4% abv)?

- I realized that I had ordered Nottingham yeast, rather than the yeast called for by the recipe (Fermentis US-05), probably because it was cheaper. It seems like I have read negative comments about Nottingham. Any opinion on this? Too late for this batch, but would this batch have been significantly better off if I had used the other yeast?

Thanks,
Jerry
 
You're fine with Nottingham- you might notice that fermentation takes a while to kick-off so don't worry. I bet it will finish lower than 1010 but only time will tell, and even if it doesn't- there's nothing wrong with that. You can always do sugar additions- but I don't know anything about that.

PS- I thought the Lundberg BRS jars were 1 lb 5 oz? If that's the case you are close to 1045-ish
 
Lcasanova said:
You're fine with Nottingham- you might notice that fermentation takes a while to kick-off so don't worry. I bet it will finish lower than 1010 but only time will tell, and even if it doesn't- there's nothing wrong with that. You can always do sugar additions- but I don't know anything about that.

PS- I thought the Lundberg BRS jars were 1 lb 5 oz? If that's the case you are close to 1045-ish
Click to expand...

I was a little concerned about the yeast taking off. I am seeing some pressure differential, but no bubbling yet. Not worried... yet.

The jars are 1lb 5oz, so it was almost 4lbs of BRS. Not sure why it was as low as it was. This was my first shot using the glass carboy as a primary, but I did try to calibrate the 5gal mark up front. I will doublecheck it before I use it again, in case I messed that up and diluted the wort too much.

I am pretty hopeful this will turn out to be a smooth and drinkable beer, although I am working toward darker and stronger stuff.

Thanks,
Jerry
 
You will get there. But you might have diluted too much or maybe it wasn't mixed up so good?

I used Nottingham on my pumpkin ale and it didn't take off until after about 60 hours.
 
Jerry, just relax and let the yeast do their thing. Bubbles mean nothing, I have had fermentations in buckets that never bubbled at all. From the sounds of it, you did nothing that will change the beer in any significant way and it also sounds like normal yeast activity.

Now try to forget about it for a couple weeks.
 
DKershner said:
Jerry, just relax and let the yeast do their thing. Bubbles mean nothing, I have had fermentations in buckets that never bubbled at all. From the sounds of it, you did nothing that will change the beer in any significant way and it also sounds like normal yeast activity.

Now try to forget about it for a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah, I will just chill out, sit back, and learn from the yeast.
 
Brewing a spiced holiday ale this weekend. Although at this point in time it will be more like a January ale. Bottling up a Belgian/wit.

Anyone else brewing?:mug:
 
I brewed up a gal for starters and culturing then canned it in jars. I want more yeast options so I'm going to apply my edumacation to my hobby. A fello home brewer is gonna let me harvest some of his yeast strains.. Next thing I need to make is some potato dextrose agar Petrie plates for isolation.. Kegging this weekend if I can find kegs if not I'm bottling.
 
I'll probably spend the bulk of my time cleaning up my place, but if I can I'll probably start a long term cider with an E1118 or an ipa with WGV and T-58 that's been waiting for me to do. Maybe this time I'll clean any boilover the day of, instead of waiting a few weeks and letting it carmelize and burn.
 
Brewing either my original American Brown Ale or the updated one tomorrow. And I'll be bottling both of the experimental pumpkin ales...busy weekend! Anyone else brewing?
 
Just got done brewing an ale using the mash infusion idea and I think it might have worked since the starting gravity is higher than usual. Good start at least.

I will be kegging my GF oatmeal Choc stout in a few days I would imagine.
 
Just finished a re-brew of my original American Brown Ale- OG 1058

This batch I am splitting 4 ways:
-1 gallon on oak
-1 gallon on vanilla
-1 gallon on coffee (maybe)
-The rest will be my control to compare against the above trials and the tweaked version of the ABA I'll brew in a few weeks.
 
Lcasanova said:
Just finished a re-brew of my original American Brown Ale- OG 1058

This batch I am splitting 4 ways:
-1 gallon on oak
-1 gallon on vanilla
-1 gallon on coffee (maybe)
-The rest will be my control to compare against the above trials and the tweaked version of the ABA I'll brew in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

Nice, how much of each ingredient?
 
andrewdell19 said:
Just got done brewing an ale using the mash infusion idea and I think it might have worked since the starting gravity is higher than usual. Good start at least.

I will be kegging my GF oatmeal Choc stout in a few days I would imagine.
Click to expand...

Ok well this one did not turn out so good. First off I used leaf hops and few hop leaves were in the primary when I went to put it in the secondary. Way too much sorghum taste in it- I think I will stick to using the grains as a tea. I am also going to start mashing some of the buckwheat that I got (25 lbs) as I think this will lead to a better beer.

The Coffee Oatmeal Choc stout turned out great tho. And then this one turned out bad- oh well! It I can stomach it tho if I need a drink.
 
In short it gives me mad poops

My last year of college, I got real sick lost 30 lbs (off of a 150 lb frame), couldnt really keep anything in, lots of gas... well you get the picture!

A Dr test will give you an idea- but then again my Drs test came back negative (blood) but then I did a stool test and came back positive. I hope you dont have to go GF but if you do- welcome!
 

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