First Time Gluten Free Brew

[deyoung]

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 and a normal extract ale was:
1. Fermentation time: my gravity had gone from 1.045 down to only 1.026 in one week. Give it time. It took several weeks longer in the secondary than a barley beer but my gravity did end up at 1.010.

2. Aftertaste from the sorghum: this was quite unpleasant at first, especially when I first sampled at racking time. But the aftertaste definitely diminished after being in the secondary. After two weeks in the bottle, it's now completely gone. So don't be put off when you first taste it (or try to correct it by adding flavors).

I hope this helps.

 

[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 secondary.

 

[mrtree]

HI-

Brewed my first batch of gf beer 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I used the recipe posted by aggieotis.

I am thinking of taking a reading this weekend and hopefully putting it into bottles shortly thereafter.

So far it smells great and has been popping bubbles pretty steadily since a day or so after the brew. (I know bubbles don't mean anything, take a reading!)

Looking for my next recipe, another beginner one will probably do at this point. I feel the need to get more buckets already! Thinking about trying an IPA next.

Playing with beersmith and entered Sorghum extract for the recipe. Not sure what exactly needs to be filled in as I am still learning. Any help with that would be appreciated.

-Mike

 

[Lcasanova]

Here's what I use for beersmith

I've used it ever since my second batch and I've added other gf ingredients along the way.

 

[DirtbagHB]

theres all these comments out here about how to get rid of the funny sorghum taste... ive tried every commercial GF beer out there i could find(red bridge, bards tale blue label, st peters, all 4 of greens, and new grist. i havent managed to get a hold of the draft GF beer made by deschutes) as far as i see it and feel they all have a sorghum taste to em. the only way to get rid of the sorghum citrus-ey taste, is to get rid of the sorghum. we arent limited to using sorghum. if your a pure extract brewer, theres rice extracts and tapioca extract. use that as a base. for flavor toast and steep these grains. theres quinoa, millet, buchwheat, rice, oats, even chestnuts. but if you really want some control malt these seeds and see what your imaginations can create. IMO if its a seed and it will sprout you can prolly malt it. and as scary and complicated it as it sounds malting isnt all that hard. RELAX HAVE A HOME BREW.

a really easy brew is my strawberry blonde floating around the forums here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/tapioca-malt-142515/
these were so good i forgot to stash a 12er to age

 

[mrtree]

Thanks lcasanova. That's pretty much what I had entered.
Good to know I am on the right track.

This GF forum is a great resource!