GF CrazyHop IPA

[Murika]

I malted my own quinoa a while back, and held it in the oven at 60 degrees C for a few hours. It now smells like coffee and chocolate, and we will be using it like a crystal malt of sorts.

I will be toasting oats according to the directions here today or tomorrow:
https://www.fivebladesbrewing.com/toasting-oats-guide/

Planned Recipe:

BIAB stovetop partial mash with

300g home-malted quinoa
150-200g toasted gf quick oats
1/2-1 grated sweet potato for beta amylase
1/2 teaspoon alpha amylase.

Heat water to 65C, infuse/add ingredients, insulate, and leave for an hour.
Sparge.

Use wort from partial mash for 5 gallon extract brew with 6.6 lbs sorghum syrup.
I might potentially add maple syrup and/or brown sugar to bring up the gravity.

All hops are pellets unless stated otherwise
90min:
2oz Warrior
.75oz Chinook
.75oz Centennial

45min:
.75oz Ekuanot

25min:
.25oz Ekuanot

15min:
1oz Local Quebec Cascade

5min:
.5oz Azacca
.5oz Kohatu
.5oz Local Cascade
.5oz Ekuanot
.5oz Chinook
.5oz Centennial

0min:
.5oz Azacca
.5oz Kohatu
.5oz Local Cascade
.5oz Ekuanot
.5oz Chinook
.5oz Centennial

Pitch with US-05 and clarity ferm (just for clarity, I know there's no gluten).

Dryhop:
(not sure if 3days to a week)
1oz whole leaf Cascade
1oz Local Quebec Cascade
1oz Ekuanot LupulN2
.5oz Chinook
.5oz Centennial

Thoughts? Concerns?

 

[brewGF]

Interesting. With all of the sorghum I dont think need more gravity, but obviously that's up to you. I am done using US05 with sorghum. Its too clean and allows too much sorghum twang to shine. I prefer an English ale yeast. Good luck and post the results please!

 

[Murika]

I guess my strategy to mask the sorghum is quinoa, roasted oats, maple, and a ton of hops. I've never heard that English ale yeasts help in this department before, that's cool!

Any yeast strain in particular that you recommend?

 

[Murika]

I'm also debating on whether or not to include the sweet potato skins. I know they have alpha amylase but I already have some lab produced version of that and I want to avoid too much sweet potato flavor in my beer. For that same reason I am also debating whether or not to try converting the sweet potato starches, or just let the sweet potato steep to get its amylase then take it out before mashing.

 

[brewGF]

I have no experience with those items you mentioned.

S04 is a great yeast and i love T58, but with T58 you will get an entirely different brew.

 

[ChasidicCalvinist]

You don't need that much sorghum.
Use:
3.3lbs sorghum
1.6lbs Brown Rice Syrup
1lb adjunct sugar (maple syrup, brown sugar, honey, candi syrup)

 

[Murika]

We did the beer yesterday. We ended up shredding 4 lbs of sweet potatoes and soaking them in a liter of water a pound at a time for 10 minutes each for the sake of their enzymes. The water started at 45° C and by the end of the process was at 35.

240g of home malted and kilned dark quinoa and 120g of home roasted gf quick oats were added to the water along with 1 lbs of sweet potatoes cut into cubes and a half teaspoon of alpha amylase powder. The water was raised to 45°C by adding hot water and allowed to rest for 20 minutes. Then the water (around 3 liters at this point with the temp raises) was raised to 66°C and the pot was allowed to sit for a half hour, insulated with thick blankets.

An iodine test at the beginning of this half hour was black. An iodine test conducted 30 minutes later showed no color change.

Then we added sorghum and half a 540ml can of Quebec maple syrup, and some gallons of water. We did the beer with the hops as planned above. Added 300ml of honey at 20 minutes. Added the rest of the maple syrup at the end of the boil (maple syrup is already boiled down and sanitary so... should be okay).

We dropped the wort to 26° C in about 10 minutes with a copper coil chiller. The original gravity for approximately 17 liters was 1.74. Added the wort to the fermenter, added clarity ferm, pitched with US-05, then put in the cellar which was around 16°C but varies +5 or -3 degrees.

Fingers crossed*

 

[TahoePowderHound]

You don't need that much sorghum.
Use:
3.3lbs sorghum
1.6lbs Brown Rice Syrup
1lb adjunct sugar (maple syrup, brown sugar, honey, candi syrup)

Where do you purchase your Brown Rice Syrup? I can find Rice Syrup Solids all over the internet but can't find a seller of the Briess BRS anywhere.

 

[Murika]

I can't speak for ChasidicCalvinist but the one time I used Brown Rice Syrup I bought it from a homebrew supply shop online.

 

[Murika]

We bottled today after dry hopping.

Final Gravity was at 1.010.

We tasted the beer from the cylinder for gravity measurements.

The good: we got the grain bill right!!! It tastes like beer! The malted and kilned quinoa, the roasted oats, and the sweet potato did exactly what we wanted. It has no sorghum twang and tastes malty with a bit of roast and sweetness, just like barley beer. Even though it's still flat and uncarbonated, the mouthfeel is thick and feels right.

The bad: we used too many hop varietals. It tastes hoppy, and the bitterness is right, but next time I would like to use only 2 or 3 types of hops so that their individual flavors come through. This tastes like a generic hop bomb IPA without too much unique character.

But we tried it with Glutenberg IPA, and I had a Ninkasi Tricerahops as well (my fiancee can't have gluten but I can) and it tasted closer to the Real McCoy than the Glutenberg. I'll take that as a win!

In two weeks we'll get to try it carbonated. Looking forward to it

 

[Murika]

Head retention, yes.

Mouthfeel, yes.

Caramel malt flavor, yes.

Hop flavor, not quite as fruity/citrusy as I would like.

Sorghum, still a slight issue. I will probably dial that down in favor of sweet potato/rice.

Overall, a satisfying gluten free beer that I think could outmatch many out there, but still not quite tasting like a barley beer yet. An improvement.

 

[brewGF]

It can still be better than a barley beer without tasting like a barley beer.