I found the negative reviews surprising! I brewed igliashon's recipe with a few relatively minor tweaks and came out with very good results. It does not taste like a non-GF beer obviously, but it definitely tastes A LOT better than most of the commercial GF beers out there. Plus its a stout...havent found one commercially made yet!
Here is how my final recipe differed from igliashon's original recipe, and what I will change in batch 2. Yes I will definitely make this again for my wife who is GF and enjoys this beer.
-Added 1/2 lb of home sprouted, roasted and malted buckwheat
-Added 1/4 lb of toasted & malted millet
-I only steeped the grains for 45 min (next time I will do full 60 min for more flavor)
-I added the 3 lb sorghum at the same time as the 180 Dark Candy, then brought to a boil. This was by accident...not sure how this affects flavor...any ideas?
-Added 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder to boil (
MISTAKE the chocolate flavor fermented out with the CO2 and left too much bitterness. Next time I will had some melted bakers chocolate mixed wtih wort into the primary fermenter...if at all)
-THE BEST thing I did was added 16 oz of strong Cold Pressed coffee to secondary 24 hours before bottling. I definitely recommend this if you like Java stouts, or coffee flavors in your beer. It adds a strong pleasant coffee nose, and flavor to the beer. Cold pressed coffee should not add biterness. Definitely going to repeat, with maybe a little stronger coffee to add just a bit more flavor
-Next time I would cut down on the amount of bittering hops, there is a strong bitter flavor a bit too bitter. (Does this have anything to do with my mistake of adding sorghum too soon?)
-I would boil for only 60 min.
-Focus the hop editions on 5 min or flame out.
-Oh, I also added Maltodextrin for body. Not sure how much this helped.
-Next time I want to add Lactose to add body, creaminess, some sweatness.
-Finally, it was in the fermenters for a total of 4 weeks. Bottle condishioned 2 weeks. Definitely mellowed out the bittereness a bit after 4-6 weeks. But the coffee remains!
I hope this helps! Let me know what you think!