Hello from VA

[RVAgaffer]

Hello Everyone!

The quick about me: I have never brewed anything (yet) but have been interested in it for years since a friend started doing some homemade wines and meads (and who now, unsurprisingly, is a head brewmaster at a brewery in NC). I have celiac disease and while I have found a few great professionally made GF beers, there is not exactly a lot of options.

I just ordered a pretty decent amount of gear to get started and am planing to start off with some small batches of simple sugar/fruit wine, mead, and a 5 gallon GF Ale kit. Once i get a few drinkable bottles done I am planing to try some more interesting recipes and hopefully figure out some nice GF beer options that i can hand to a non GF friend and not get a weird look.

I look forward to learning a lot!

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

Welcome from a Virginia native living farther afield! Good luck exploring what sounds like some cool stuff.

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome to the forum, from Minnesota!

BTW, check out the section on gluten-free brewing. I think you'll find some good ideas there.

 

[RVAgaffer]

Thanks guys.

Max, I have already bookmarked a few recipes to try in the GF section. I am really excited to try some beer styles I missed out on since i was diagnosed w/ celiac during my first year in college. I posted there (think its still waiting for mod approval) for some direction on my next steps after I get the kit through brewing.

I originally was planing to do a sugar wine with just a little orange in it as a proof of concept but after some of the threads I have read I think I will be skipping that horror show and start with the GF ale kit, a simple mead (since that will take a while) and a simple cider so I at least get a couple things in bottles sooner than later.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Welcome from 90 miles north.

While there's a lot of folks doing some cool stuff with sorghum and buckwheat and the like, you could try going the Brewer's Clarex route (I believe the White Labs fining "Clarity Ferm" is primarily Brewer's Clarex). While its primary function in breweries is to reduce protein haze, it has the added benefit of breaking down gluten, to the point that some breweries are using it to make barley-based "gluten reduced" or "gluten removed" beers (as a friend of mine with Celiac's terms them, rather than "gluten free", I'm not sure what the actual labeling laws are but I think there was an issue with them being labeled as "gluten free"). Same Celiac's friend said that some folks will still have a reaction, others won't. I know another friend who said another friend of his who has Celiac's is able to drink his beers made with Brewer's Clarex without a problem, but that's all grapevine hearsay.

Point is, if your reactions to gluten aren't particularly severe (my Celiac's friend gets a majorly upset stomach but nothing more serious than that), you could give it a shot and see what happens.

 

[RVAgaffer]

Welcome from 90 miles north.

While there's a lot of folks doing some cool stuff with sorghum and buckwheat and the like, you could try going the Brewer's Clarex route (I believe the White Labs fining "Clarity Ferm" is primarily Brewer's Clarex). While its primary function in breweries is to reduce protein haze, it has the added benefit of breaking down gluten, to the point that some breweries are using it to make barley-based "gluten reduced" or "gluten removed" beers (as a friend of mine with Celiac's terms them, rather than "gluten free", I'm not sure what the actual labeling laws are but I think there was an issue with them being labeled as "gluten free"). Same Celiac's friend said that some folks will still have a reaction, others won't. I know another friend who said another friend of his who has Celiac's is able to drink his beers made with Brewer's Clarex without a problem, but that's all grapevine hearsay.

Point is, if your reactions to gluten aren't particularly severe (my Celiac's friend gets a majorly upset stomach but nothing more serious than that), you could give it a shot and see what happens.

If i was just intolerant to gluten i would consider it but since celiac is an auto immune reaction and causes pretty substantial damage (even if you don't have any immediate reactions to consuming gluten) its not something i would consider. There is also some debate about if the results of the breakdown still can cause the reactions. I discussed this before with an R&D chemist friend (that is one of the smartest people I have ever met and is responsible for a lot of materials in everyday items now), many of his degrees (yeah he's has like 7 of them ) are in bio chem and he said from the research he has seen he would be willing to bet the broken down proteins would still cause reactions.

I just spent the first 18 years of my life always being sick so I will go out of my way to avoid putting my self in that place again. My issues aren't "ahhhh you have bread with in 20 feet of me run away" but I also won't take a chance if someone offers food and says 'i think this is safe'... but that may by my slight OCD tendencies coming out

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from CO

Lots of good info on GF brewing these days. And wine is fun too.

 

[Qhrumphf]

If i was just intolerant to gluten i would consider it but since celiac is an auto immune reaction and causes pretty substantial damage (even if you don't have any immediate reactions to consuming gluten) its not something i would consider. There is also some debate about if the results of the breakdown still can cause the reactions. I discussed this before with an R&D chemist friend (that is one of the smartest people I have ever met and is responsible for a lot of materials in everyday items now), many of his degrees (yeah he's has like 7 of them ) are in bio chem and he said from the research he has seen he would be willing to bet the broken down proteins would still cause reactions.

I just spent the first 18 years of my life always being sick so I will go out of my way to avoid putting my self in that place again. My issues aren't "ahhhh you have bread with in 20 feet of me run away" but I also won't take a chance if someone offers food and says 'i think this is safe'... but that may by my slight OCD tendencies coming out

I am far from an expert on Celiac's, so I'd certainly trust you and your doctor's judgement.

Best of luck to you. I've had a few true gluten free homebrews over the years that have been excellent. Unfortuantely outside of the "gluten removed" barley-based ones, no commercial beers I can recall have held up.

 

[RVAgaffer]

Qhrumphf, I may be lucky that I never got to experience 'normal' beer much. It has even been so long since i went GF that I bet if I grabbed a burger or something with 'normal' bread it would taste weird to me

Green's is the only commercially brewed beer that my gluten consuming friends have tried and said its not bad... where as when they tried redbridge or even T'weason by dogfish head they were not so happy haha.