Recent content by deyoung

I should also add quickly that I ended up racking twice to really clarify this beer, and on the second racking I added a bit of yeast nutrient--I was worried that fermentation had stopped. I'm not sure that it made that much difference--it still seemed SUPER slow the rest of the time in the...

Having just done my first GF batch, I would suggest the following for starting out: 7 lbs sorghum syrup Hops to taste Nottingham dry ale yeast (or any that indicates gluten free on it) You can add maple syrup or rice syrup to up your gravity if desired. The main differences I found with this...

I've completed given up on the maple flavour. Any that was there was probably boiled off on brew day. However this beer has turned out really nice. The sorghum aftertaste can be pretty nasty which had me worried while this one was aging. But I can report that that mellows significantly over...

I concur on the bitterness. A couple weeks after racking the bitter aftertaste was really off-putting. Now after about five weeks in the carboy it's still there but much better. I expect a couple months in the bottle and when this batch is cold and carbonated it will be quite nice.

I was wondering if I could use a better yeast myself. In my first GF batch I used Sorghum syrup and a little maple syrup. I used a Nottingham ale dry yeast and while the beer has fully fermented now it was really really slow. For the California Ale yeast, are you referring to WLP001 from...

Gravity finally down to 1.012 so should be ready for the bottle any time. The taste has really mellowed out now with the harsh aftertaste all but gone. Going to put some fresh vanilla bean in and leave in the carboy for one more week. Finings added at first racking have really done their job...

An update on my gluten-free ale.... I left it in the primary for 7 days instead of the usual 4. The gravity was still up at 1.026. I racked a second time, adding some yeast nutrient to try and kick things up a bit. It has now been fermenting for almost 5 weeks and although it has slowed very...

I wrapped the coil around a paint can to maintain a clean shape. Thanks for sharing pics!

Great advice jackson_d--thanks. That should be mind blowing when it's ready to drink! :)

I'm curious to hear how this turned out. I just did a batch with maple syrup and worry I don't have enough maple flavor. I used 7 lbs malt extract with 1 lb of syrup. I'm going to taste at racking time and then add more maple into the secondary if required. Also I might prime with syrup as...

I just brewed my first GF batch. 7 lbs sorghum syrup 1 lb Canada No. 1 medium maple syrup 1 oz cascade (boil) 0.5 oz cascade (5 min finish) Nottingham dry ale yeast OG came out at 1.048. Maple flavour not really present after brewing. I'm considering adding some more maple syrup at...

The thing I noticed with the chiller is that stirring makes a huge difference. I just did an extract brew and so my kettle was only a little over half full. But with vigorous stirring it went from boiling down to 25 deg C in under 5 min! If I left the wort alone the outflow was cold but as...

An update: the chiller worked great! Cooled an entire kettle (1/2 of our full-batch boil) in 10 minutes. Probably helped that it was done outside and it was 0 deg C. :) @Lunarpancake: the total cost of the chiller was $65. $25 of that was the copper and $17 was the short hose. I'm sure it...

Thanks for the tip!

Finally got sick of dunking my kettle in an ice bath and built a wort chiller. Thought I would share the results here. After going back and forth I decided to build only by bending the tube and not soldering. Here is the result: For the intake I got a short garden hose. This connects...