Help please with first slow gluten free recipe

Help please with first slow gluten free recipe

A good friend is allergic to gluten

So this Sunday after brewing a normal 10 gallon batch for my self
we brewed a 5 gallon batch of a breise recipe pale ale

7lbs 8 oz Sorghum extract
1oz cascade 40 min
.5oz cascade 5 min
1 oz cascade flame out
1oz cascade Dryhop (not added yet)
1 pack WLabs california ale yeast WP0001 (no yeast Starter)
( not sure why recipe said notty or w-yeast Gluten free yeast but this what LHBS gave him as they don't sock W-yeast, they did check up and said it was Gluten Free)

Measured OG 1052

Today there is still really no sign of a good fermentation
its sat in basement at 68 degrees
just move it to slightly warmer spot of 70 degrees
took SG reading 1046

should we be using a yeast nutrient or some sugar in the recipe to help dry it out as I have seen in other posts.

Any help with this would be most appreciated.

 

Sorghum seems to ferment slower than barley malt and you didn't make a starter. The gravity is coming down, so I'd just let it run for a couple weeks.

 

Its actually going fine now
just slower to start than i had expected

Another question does GF beers drop bright like regular beers.
from the pics i seen on the recipe pages here they all seem a lot more cloudy. is this normal and expected from GF beer?
how about cold crashing during or after secondary?

don't really have much time to experiment right now as friend wants the beer for Xmas
going to bottle 1/2 for later drinking and use 2.5 gallon keg to force carb the other 1/2 so it drinkable by xmas.

 

Not too sure how to answer that one. Yes, they can be as bright and clear as regular beers. Most of mine have been crystal clear, no protein haze, no starch haze, no yeast haze.
It's going to depend on the flocculation of the yeast, as well as if you decide to use any clarifiers and if you cold crash to drop the yeast. Pretty much the same variations as normal beer from what I hear.

Some of our cloudier ones tend to be more experimental, usually those with items that will create a wheat-like haze. My orange & coriander nonwheat wit is cloudy, as is my chocolate ale for example, even though they've been chilled since Feburary.

I've not used that particular yeast, so I couldn't tell you my results from it.

 

I've used a standard dose of Irish Moss to the boil, that clears up the haze you are describing.

 

Always yeast a gluten free yeast nutrient, 1 teaspoon. I do this every time and it ensures a good ferment. I don't even do a starter, I just throw in the yeast and it sorts itself out.

A few ways to improve this

* Whirlfloc in the boil
* Gelatine before bottling
* Racking to secondary

I find even when my beer is a little cloudy going into bottles, it clears up really quickly in the botte (say 2 days).

And it's nice of you to brew for a friend. That's exactly how I got started, a friend brewed for me, showed me it was possible and now I'm hooked

 

They usually clear up pretty good for me.

 

well that all looks good
cant wait to see how this 1 turns out
and then start experimenting with GF beers for my friend.
I guess we will brew one every once in a while

Thanks for all the help

 

May I ask how long you had this in the primary and secondary?

Thank you!
Seb

 

It was in primary for 6 weeks and a couple days. No secondary.

 

God damn you're a patient man, give it three weeks and I'm itching to bottle it

 

Ha! Lucky, or too darn busy?

Seriously, though, once you have a stockpile of previous batches around the house (not to mention all the stuff going on every weekend) it isn't too hard to wait. At least that's been my experience.

Speaking of which, I'm actually running low now...

 

I was just browsing trying to find why my first sorghum brew started fermenting so quickly! It started bubbling within an hour or so, was bubbling pretty fast within a couple hours, and overnight it slowed and pretty much stopped. I thought maybe sorghum extract goes FASTER than barley. Thoughts???

Recipe details:
Brewed Jan 8, 2012
2.5 gallons
3.3 lb Briess White Sorghum Extract
1oz fuggles hops
0.5oz Mt. Hood hops
Danstar Nottingham yeast
Boiled for an hour, with the fuggles added at 45 min left, first 0.25oz of Mt. Hood at 10 min left, the rest at 1 min. Rehydrated yeast while boiling wort. Cooled in a sink ice bath to 80 degrees F. Pitched yeast, aerated by shaking. Currently fermenting in food-grade plastic bucket with airlock at ~63 degrees F

This is my first time brewing anything, let alone GF beer.

 

A pkg of yeast has enough for 5 gallons. Half the volume equals twice the yeast, so they worked faster. They didn't have to spend as much time making more yeast.

 

And live by gravity readings. One before the yeast goes in and one when you think it's stopped.