Gluten Free Birthday Barleywine

[InfiniteThought]

so, flavorings...
T-58 yeast will give a little peppery flavor, I was thinking of 1/2 gram grains of paradise and oak cubes soaked in red wine in secondary. what do you think?

 

[DKershner]

so, flavorings...
T-58 yeast will give a little peppery flavor, I was thinking of 1/2 gram grains of paradise and oak cubes soaked in red wine in secondary. what do you think?

If you soak the cubes, make sure to add the wine as well.

Other than that, sounds good.

 

[InfiniteThought]

yum. Alright, I am going to write these changes down in my brewbook and then get some lunch. thanks for your help and I will definitely save you and the wag (couldn't remember which) a bottle

 

[Lcasanova]

that shakparo does sounds good. wouldn't mind some of that myself

I've had a hard time finding that one. They have Mbege at the local beer stores by me and I cannot stand that beer. The aftertaste is waayyyy too sweet. One-two sips max on that beer, then it's down the drain for me.

 

[InfiniteThought]

sounds kinda like the green's tripple blonde. it tastes like carbonated wort, couldn't drink so I put it in a slug trap and the slugs wouldn't take it.

 

[DKershner]

sounds kinda like the green's tripple blonde. it tastes like carbonated wort, couldn't drink so I put it in a slug trap and the slugs wouldn't take it.

My GF really likes that one...just to give you an idea what I am dealing with.

 

[InfiniteThought]

really? its so sweet. well, to each their own i guess. I am more in favor of a little more balanced taste, sweetness AND bitterness. or maybe I just had a bad bottle of the greens maybe I should give it another chance.

 

[DKershner]

really? its so sweet. well, to each their own i guess. I am more in favor of a little more balanced taste, sweetness AND bitterness. or maybe I just had a bad bottle of the greens maybe I should give it another chance.

Not likely...she likes MUCH sweeter things than me. I didn't think the tripel was very good, although I liked the amber and the dubbel would be good without the sorghum flavor.

 

[InfiniteThought]

I agree with you completely on the others, I thought that the amber was good and the dubbel was okay. So far the amber is my favorite commercial GF beer. I had a question for you, if I add sugar in increments during fermentation I can never get a true OG ready right?

 

[DKershner]

I agree with you completely on the others, I thought that the amber was good and the dubbel was okay. So far the amber is my favorite commercial GF beer. I had a question for you, if I add sugar in increments during fermentation I can never get a true OG ready right?

Correct, but the sugar is easy to calculate how much it will add to the beer. I just take an OG on everything that I added pre ferment and then add in what the sugar will do.

 

[InfiniteThought]

you said earlier that when i add the sugar I should add some of each kind, meaning don't add all the dememera on one day, then add the Candi sugar on a different day but rather that I should mix all the sugar additives together and add them a smallish amount at a time. did I understand that correctly?

 

[DKershner]

you said earlier that when i add the sugar I should add some of each kind, meaning don't add all the dememera on one day, then add the Candi sugar on a different day but rather that I should mix all the sugar additives together and add them a smallish amount at a time. did I understand that correctly?

You can do either...but I would actually add the sugars from most difficult to least difficult to eat. Which would be...honey, dememera, candi, I think.

 

[InfiniteThought]

just racked my fresh hop IPA into secondary and man does it smell good! Cascade and Mt Hood in excess.

 

[InfiniteThought]

I have been doing some reading about Candi sugar and now I am confused. Candi sugar is inverted and processed sugar, shouldn't that make it more fermentable them demerera? Demerera will require the yeast to produce invertase making it harder to eat and contains many more impurities that will not ferment...at least that is what I understand.

 

[Revvy]

Hey look...It was sitting in the similar threads box below. Although not a BW, it is an old ale. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/gluten-free-old-ale-49322/ it may have some ideas.

 

[InfiniteThought]

hey thanks Revvy there is some info there for sure.

 

[DKershner]

I have been doing some reading about Candi sugar and now I am confused. Candi sugar is inverted and processed sugar, shouldn't that make it more fermentable them demerera? Demerera will require the yeast to produce invertase making it harder to eat and contains many more impurities that will not ferment...at least that is what I understand.

Ease of eating and how fermentable something is is not the same thing. That being said, I was guessing on the dememera sugar, so you could be right, although for sugar, the candi sugar is really not that fermentable. At least that particular brand isnt, the point is the flavor instead.

 

[InfiniteThought]

this is suddenly making sense again. I caramelized some honey today just to see how it would go and now I have a jar full of beautiful light red honey. I am not sure how far I need to let it go but I think this will work. It seems to be a lot thicker then it started as well, in addition to the color change. Also planning on making Candi sugar today, gonna make it ahead of time so that I have more chances to make it again when/ if it all goes to hell.

 

[InfiniteThought]

so I made the candi sugar and it is a rich red, I don't think it is quite dark enough or modified enough so I am going to caramelize a little bit more then a pound of the honey to make up for it. Between caramelized red honey, red candi sugar and red rice I am definitely seeing a color trend emerge for this beer.

 

[Lcasanova]

so I made the candi sugar and it is a rich red, I don't think it is quite dark enough or modified enough so I am going to caramelize a little bit more then a pound of the honey to make up for it. Between caramelized red honey, red candi sugar and red rice I am definitely seeing a color trend emerge for this beer.

Did you roast the red rice? I got some black rice and tried a test steep with it and I barely got any color from it. After roasting it I got a whole lot more color.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Did you roast the red rice? I got some black rice and tried a test steep with it and I barely got any color from it. After roasting it I got a whole lot more color.

Did you bother to cook the rice after roasting or did you just grind it and add it to the mash? Just curious as I'm using some rice in a recipe next week and was originally just going to cook it and add it too the mash, but maybe roasting it would give me some more complex flavors as well as more color.

Adam

 

[Lcasanova]

No, I didn't cook it. I just rinsed it off and roasted it. Roasting it will certainly give you A LOT more color than you would get otherwise, cracking it will help too.

 

[InfiniteThought]

thats really good to know. I will definitely roast the rice before I crack and mash it. So it turns out that I screwed up the Candi sugar after all. While I got it caramelized to a nice color I didn't heat it hot enough after the caramelization to reach the "hard crack" stage when it cooled and it is too flexible to break and too strong to cut. I think that I am going to make it again but don't know what I am going to do with this flexible 4 lb block of red sugar...

 

[Lcasanova]

I don't know much about making your own candi sugar but why can't you use it as is? Something to do with the invert thing?

 

[InfiniteThought]

I could use it just like this, but I cannot get it out of the pan! its like rock hard glue and it won't shatter like it is supposed to, it just bends out of the way. At least I used a cheap pan from the depression era that my greatgrandmother threw away. I wanted the sugar to be a little more caramelized anyway so this will be fine, and I have another terrible pan to put it in incase it doesn't work again.

do you think that a light roast on the red rice will significantly change the flavor?

 

[Lcasanova]

do you think that a light roast on the red rice will significantly change the flavor?

Probably not, but I've never used red rice in a beer before- just dont burn it.

 

[InfiniteThought]

yuck burnt rice beer. no kidding. I eat the black rice occasionally and I have noticed that most of the color comes out of it once you start boiling it, the mash may just not be hot enough.

EDIT: just finished the 2nd batch of candi sugar, this time I heated the crap out of it at the end. verdict is a much darker red which I wanted and as far as being able to use it we will have to wait for it to cool.

 

[BBBF]

Probably not, but I've never used red rice in a beer before- just dont burn it.

I've used red rice in a pilsner (not gf). It gave it a little bit of a nutty flavor. Not bad, but not an ingredient I'll be dieing to use again.

 

[InfiniteThought]

This is being brewed right now, wish me luck. your all invited to help but you have to find my house

 

[Lcasanova]

What was the final recipe you went with? Are we going to get to see any brewday pics?