Gluten Free Wicked Messenger Wit

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Lcasanova

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Adapted from Wingdigstat's White Riot Belgian

Ingredients:
------------

7 lbs Sorghum Syrup (30 min)
1 oz Hallertauer, pellet 3.8% (60 min)
.50 oz Hallertauer, pellet 3.8% (5 min)
.25 oz corriander seed, cracked (flameout)
.25 oz bitter orange peel (20 min)
.5 oz sweet orange peel (20 min)
1 tsp yeast nutrient (20 min)
8 oz maltodextrine (5 min)
1 pkg SafBrew Specialty Ale (T-58)

Carbed with 3.8 oz corn sugar

When poured there is a nice head but it dissapates quickly. I had a fair amount of sediment in my bottles but no biggie.

Gluten_Free_010.JPG


Sorry for the bad resolution, my camera doesn't take good pictures of beer!
 
Hey, how did this turn out? I was thinking of trying it out since my fiancee is allergic to wheat.

Also, do you know if you can find sorghum locally?
 
Hey, how did this turn out? I was thinking of trying it out since my fiancee is allergic to wheat.

Also, do you know if you can find sorghum locally?

Sorry for the delay, this didn't come across my radar until today :drunk:

This one actually turned out pretty good. It's slightly sweet and orangy when young but it really comes into it's own with time. As it is, I don't think I would change anything. It is still cloudy and hasn't ever cleared and I don't think I have too many bottles left. Of all my brews this is one of the favorites among my regular beer drinking friends.

I haven't had any luck sourcing sorghum syrup locally, I usually order from midwest supplies of austin homebrew. If you find it locally, please let me know.

And, if you end up brewing it, maybe we can do a swap or something :D
 
Awesome! I just had one the other day, about 7+ months old and it was still fantastic. Some of the sweetness that initially went away came back but the aroma and aftertaste was fruity. I think it ages well for the style. Hope you like it, it's been a hit among my friends.
 
I just received some sorghum extract I ordered from Northern Brewer. I'm leaning toward this recipe since I'd like to avoid/cover up the odd sorghum twang people talk about. What else would you do to de-emphasize that? And what yeasts do you think would either accentuate or mitigate that twang?
 
The beer tastes great young then suddenly the sorghum comes through, after that age will cover up the sorghum. I can't say which yeasts would help or hinder that since I've not brewed any of my beers multiple times with different yeasts...yet.
 
The beer tastes great young then suddenly the sorghum comes through, after that age will cover up the sorghum. I can't say which yeasts would help or hinder that since I've not brewed any of my beers multiple times with different yeasts...yet.

Thanks for the quick response. If you see a trend with how the sorghum comes through using various yeasts, I'm sure other people would find it helpful as well. Keep up the good work on the gluten-free front.
 
Reviving an old thread, I know! I've been lurking for awhile now and have been reading a little about GF brewing as I have a GFGF, like dkershner. Now, I've only tried 4 brews so far (2 ciders, a beer kit...with a mead in the fermenter), so all of this is only by reading.

So, I think I'm going to try this recipe, but I'm wondering if adding Malodextrin would solve the issue with the head dissipating. Anyone tried any variants?

And, special thanks to Lcasanova and dkershner for being my primary reads while trying to figure out what to make my GFGF. :)

-Traubie
 
I usually add about 8oz of Maltodextrine to all my beers but it hasn't seemed to help the head much. I think that grains are the answer to this problem. There was a thread a week or so ago where we were discussing that. This beer doesn't have any grains for steeping but if I were to use some I might use quinoa that was roasted...or maybe millet- something that won't impart too much flavor.
 
Interesting; I think I might give roasting some quinoa a shot. I was reading up on malting it, but that is a different process, right? To steep here, what I'm really looking for is something like this, right? Looks like red quinoa might be preferred if I can find it.

So, at what point in the process would you suggest I steep the roasted quinoa?
 
I've used a couple different brands of quinoa, but as long as it says gluten-free on it then it is fine. But malting is a different process than just roasting. For this beer you can use regular quinoa or red quinoa just give it a light roast. Oh- make sure you rinse the quinoa before you roast them, there is something that you are supposed to remove and I can't remember the name.

To use the roasted grains, put them in a grain bag and steep it at 150-F for 30 minutes (lately I've been steeping for 45 minutes to see what effect that will have). After 30 minutes, pull the grains.

At this point I usually get my water a little hotter then I start adding my 60 min sugars so I don't have to turn off the burner and add them just to bring it back up to a boil.
 
I just brewed up a batch of this last night. I made a few changes but it's pretty similar. I used 0.75 oz of bitter orange peel and no sweet, and upped it to 0.75 oz of coriander seed. I also used 6 lbs sorghum extract and one pound corn sugar because I was only able to find sorghum in 3 pound increments.

I'm making this for a friend of mine for Christmas. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
w00t! Finally got all the ingredients together! Only subsitution we made was that we're using grains of paradise instead of corriander because the GFGF doesn't dig on the corriander. Right now, we're steeping 2lbs of red quinoa at 151...w00t!
 
I'd be really interested in an update on this.

Additionally, if I kegged this onto an ounce or so of blueberry extract, think it would come anywhere near the Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat clones posted?

My Celiactic wife is only going to give me the green light on homebrewing if I make her a GF Franziskaner clone, and a GF "Fruitloop Beer" as she calls Leine's.
 
I haven't made it again recently but I have gotten a few request from some non-Gluten Free friends. I like the blueberry extract idea. I think this is a solid beer on its own, but if it makes the wife happy then you might as well go for it- right?
 
Ahh - my apologies for not getting an update sooner! So, the beer has a pretty heavy citrus taste, but steeping the quinoa pre-boil seems to help a bit with body and head retention (though I read somewhere that the citrus oils may mess with head retention). I think next time I'd cut down on some of the orange peel (not sure which, just yet). However, that said...from a 5G batch I've only got 1.5G left!
 
I finally got this batch of beer to my friend and she said she really likes it. I don't think she was expecting much because she doesn't really care for any of the gluten free beers on the market.

My recipe was modified in the following ways:

6 lbs Sorghum syrup and 1 lb corn sugar
0.75 oz bitter orange peel, no sweet orange peel
0.75 oz coriander
I added both the orange peel and coriander 5 minutes before flameout
Used the same amount and variety of hops, but the alpha acid was 4.6%
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.016
Primary fermentation for 17 days
Used 5 oz of priming sugar

I am trying this beer after it has been bottled just over 3 weeks. I honestly didn't expect this to be as good as it is, because every other gluten free beer has had a very strong metallic aftertaste to it that made it almost undrinkable to me. This beer definitely has a character in the aroma and flavor that is different from any other beer I have made, but it isn't unpleasant, just unusual. The orange peel and coriander are both noticeable and pleasant, but neither is overpowering. I chose to go with only the bitter orange peel partly based on biermuncher's blue moon clone recipe, and partly because I used sweet orange peel in another beer in thought the sweetness was too much. The body of the beer is pretty light compared to other wits I have tried. This has a perfect level of carbonation for me, I would say medium to medium high. A thick head didn't last long but a small ring of bubbles on the edge of the glass has lasted all the way to the bottom. All in all I was very pleasantly surprised by how good this beer turned out to be.

When I bottled the beer it was cloudier than any beer I have bottled before, and the bottles now have more sediment than I have ever had before. I'm not sure if this is because of the yeast strain or because of the sorghum extract, it was my first time using either one. I would recommend leaving this in primary for 3-4 weeks instead of just 2 so that there isn't as much sediment in the bottle, but it's really not a big deal.

Thanks for the recipe!
 
Has anyone ever tried substituting maltodextrine with something else? I don't have access to it and am wondering what I can use instead.

Thanks!
 
Is it possible to try to add something like molasses to add body instead? Must be something else I can use
 
By the way, is this the domestic Hallertau Dom or should I use Mt. Hood or Liberty instead to get the aroma of the German version?
 
Ok, going to bottle carb this now and I don't have corn sugar. How much white sugar would I use? smells good! Can't wait to have a cold one!
 
I'm thinking about giving this recipe a shot.. I've brewed * Lcasanova's Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice and I'm struggling resist drinking it so it can get a little age on it before I dig in. (Hydrometer samples at bottling were wonderful.) Thought maybe I'd distract myself during the wait by making some of this.

Alas, on to my point here: I'm thinking about making two 5 gallon batches and trying sweet orange peel in one and lemon peel in the other. I know I've seen a recipe for a barley-based wit that used lemon peel and I always thought it sounded good. Also, I have very little experience with different yeasts, but I was wondering if S-33 might be a good choice for this? (My "fermentation chamber" will probably in the low to mid 70s.)

Any thoughts? Anyone?
 
I just wanted to say this recipe was great. It was my first gluten-free attempt for SWMBO. I could only get the sorghum in 3 lb lots, so I subbed a good amount of honey at flame-out to make up the difference. :mug:
 
Since I have some gluten intolerant co-workers I would like to brew a gluten-free beer.
That's the reason I stumbled across this forum and this specific thread :mug:

The thread has been very informative but one question remains:
What was the volume you did with the mentioned recipe?
Based on my experience I would guess it's around 20 liters (= 5 US gallons if I calculated correctly).

Best regards from Switzerland,
Mathias
 
The thread has been very informative but one question remains:
What was the volume you did with the mentioned recipe?
Based on my experience I would guess it's around 20 liters (= 5 US gallons if I calculated correctly).

I made it as a 5 gallon (19 L) recipe. I believe it's the "standard size" for a recipe around here, but I may be mistaken.
 
I made it as a 5 gallon (19 L) recipe. I believe it's the "standard size" for a recipe around here, but I may be mistaken.

Thank you very much. Now I just have to find a supplier for Sorghum Syrup in Europe. It does not seem an easy task since most Amazon dealers do not ship to Switzerland :)
 
There are quite a few online stores in Britain that sell it in 1KG canisters. May cost you a bit to have it shipped to you, though. Maybe more worth it to buy it in bulk from them?
 
Hi Mathew

I only found one shop from the UK providing Sorghum syrup. The shipping costs would have been around 60 US $. So I decided to replace it with a combination of sugar cane molasses and agave syrup. The project is anyway only an appetizer for a final, mashed gluten free beer, where I will mash different pseudocereals (quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat) with additional added enzymes.
But I will keep you posted here in this thread about the results with sugar cane molasses / agave syrup.

Thank you very much and enjoy your weekend.
 
Well, if you can get buckwheat and other grains, you should look to malting the grain. That's what I do. I only use Sorghum Extract if I can't be bothered to malt and/or want to do a beer in a hurry as up until recently, Sorghum was hard for me to find. But malted grain beers taste a hell of a lot better, anyway. There are quite a few British sites stocking it now though, you should check out a few more.

Anywho, check out some threads on here about malting grains and doing different roasts (crystal/black patent etc).
 
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