Trying to come up with a recipe.

[averyrm]

Hi all,

So far I've brewed:
Breiss' "Hoppy to be Gluten Free" beer.
A dark GF beer that bluffwallace shared with me.
Two versions of the "wit" that philrose posted.

I was trying to come up with a good recipe for a dark, high ABV beer. After more questions than answers popped up during my quest, I decided I'm not quite ready for that.

I just saw DKershner's post for a GF Belgian Double:

I will make a starting idea and hopefully others will show up and add their input.

8.5lb Brown Rice Syrup
1lb Sorghum Syrup
1lb Dark Candi Syrup (160SRM)

.75oz Magnum @ 60min
.5oz Tettnang @ 10min

WLP500 w/ appropriate starter size - make the starter out of sorghum syrup and water instead of DME (this will cause a very, very minor amount of gluten to be in the final beer, but there is no replacement for chimay yeast, do not use Wyeast 1214, it has much more gluten)

4tsp Yeast Nutrient @ fermentor
.5tsp Irish Moss @ Boil

Ferment @ 66F
Prime with a little less sugar than usual.

And it sounds like exactly what I was looking for. I have yet to use brown rice syrup, so it sounds like a good time to start.

Anyone have any suggestions to add to or modify? I'm going to be placing an order soon.
I do have some buckwheat, qunioa, and millet sitting around. I toasted some of that (not malted) for the dark recipe and it seemed to really take care of a lot of the sorghum "off" flavor.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[averyrm]

In addition, is there an advantage to brown rice syrup over sorghum? If I changed it to:

7lbs Sorghum
2 lbs Brown Rice Syrup
1.7 lbs Dark Candi

Would this be disastrous? I realize it would be darker, but for ease of obtaining supplies this would work out much better.

Also, add maltodextrin?

 

[fermentedhiker]

disastrous......No. The higher percentage of Sorghum you use the more likely you'll off flavors to deal with. At least anecdotally that's the experience many have had with their recipes.

check out http://www.annapolishomebrew.com/shopEXTglutenfree.asp

They seem to have a decent selection of GF base fermentables.

 

[averyrm]

Ok, trying 3lbs sorghum, 6lbs brown rice syrup, 1.7lbs dark candi.

 

[dorklord]

You'll probably find that sorghum comes in 3lb and 6lb containers. The last batch I did, I was aiming for a belgian Tripel, but the beer ended up a little darker than I intended, mostly because I went ahead and used 6lbs of sorghum and my home-made candi sugar turned out a little darker than I wanted. I also added some extra, plain sugar to up the alcohol a bit:

6 lbs NB White Sorghum Extract
1 lb Rice Syrup Solids
1 lb 4 oz home made Belgian Candi Sugar (light amber?)
1 lb 4 oz table sugar
1 oz Perle hops, 45 minutes
1 oz coriander, 10 minutes

If I were going for a double, I'd swap the sugar for medium candi sugar, (and round off all the amounts to even lbs). The coriander is sort of a personal preference, so you'd have:

6 lbs Sorghum
1 lb Rice Extract
1 lb light candi sugar
1 lb amber/medium candi sugar
1 oz perle @ 45

That should give you a pretty good dubbel, right about 6%. I know some people are worried about the sorghum flavors...but I think the flavor of the amber sugar should help.

 

[averyrm]

Ingredients are on their way, I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[DKershner]

Thanks for reminding me about that recipe, I never made it and it looks yummy.

 

[averyrm]

Brewed last night. Ended up being:
3lbs Sorghum
6lbs Brown Rice
1.7lbs Dark Candi Syrup

.75oz Magnum @ 60mins
.5oz Hallertau @ 10mins
.5oz Hallertau @ 1min (I like the hoppy smell, not sure if it fits with the style though)
Yeast Nutrient
Irish Moss

I made a starter for the WLP500 with sorghum

I debated on the coriander, but left it out. If it turns out well, maybe next time I'll add it in to see how it goes.

1.072 initial gravity, it's bubbling away at 68 degrees right now.