Sorghum and Sorghum Malt, from the beginning

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jojox

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Hi all!
I'm an experienced homebrewer and have a friend, and a nephew, who are gluten sensitive. I also have a ton of sorghum, and the ability to malt it. I hear sorghum has an undesirable "twang" and it seems most people use syrups. Is this because of the flavor? What about higher temp kilning or roasting of raw sorghum or sorghum malt, could that help?

When mashing sorghum or sorghum malt, does it convert itself? Is there enough DP to convert other adjuncts like rice etc? What are key mash temps for this grain?

Does anyone have a decent recipe with raw sorghum or sorghum malt?

Thanks!
 
When most of us use sorghum it is in the form of sorghum extract syrup.
it does have an undesirable metalic taste, that mellows and becomes less noticable with age (at 3 months in the bottle, I no longer find it too objectionable).
This extract syrup is made comercially from un-malted sorghum, cooked and converted with added enzymes.
I do not know weather you would get the off flavors to the same degree with truly malted sorghum...as opposed to syrup made from unmalted sorghum.
As for the DP, suposedly it is less than that of barley but suficient to convert its self...I would add a little amylase just in case, its cheap insurance.

Please keep us informed, I woukd love to hear how this works out.


good luck
 
I have read it in a few places that sorghum does still have a bit of the metallic flavor even when malted. I remember Bard's Tale beer having a bit of that as well, even though it's made from malted sorghum. But it surely is a much better base for beer because it is malt, and has the true malt flavor compounds you don't get from the sorghum syrup.

DP is not a big worry if you malt it right. According to a malting book, the biggest issue is to not dry it at high temperature, because that damages the enzymes. I've had good luck air drying with a fan over several days, and then, once dry, kilning at low temperatures (170 - 190F) for about 1 to 3 hours to develop the nice malty flavors I mentioned. (I actually can't find any sorghum to malt, so I've done with corn and rice instead. The malty flavors develop on those grains, too.)

You might want to try an extended mash out and if at all possible decoction, since the biggest impediment to conversion is not the DP but the high gelatinization temperature. The malt will also certainly be irregularly modified, with some grains having more intact structure that a good boil will help break down. I wouldn't bother checking with the iodine test. In my experience, it tests positive but I don't end up with starchy wort.
 
I have read it in a few places that sorghum does still have a bit of the metallic flavor even when malted. I remember Bard's Tale beer having a bit of that as well, even though it's made from malted sorghum. But it surely is a much better base for beer because it is malt, and has the true malt flavor compounds you don't get from the sorghum syrup.

DP is not a big worry if you malt it right. According to a malting book, the biggest issue is to not dry it at high temperature, because that damages the enzymes. I've had good luck air drying with a fan over several days, and then, once dry, kilning at low temperatures (170 - 190F) for about 1 to 3 hours to develop the nice malty flavors I mentioned. (I actually can't find any sorghum to malt, so I've done with corn and rice instead. The malty flavors develop on those grains, too.)

You might want to try an extended mash out and if at all possible decoction, since the biggest impediment to conversion is not the DP but the high gelatinization temperature. The malt will also certainly be irregularly modified, with some grains having more intact structure that a good boil will help break down. I wouldn't bother checking with the iodine test. In my experience, it tests positive but I don't end up with starchy wort.

Thanks Nitton all of this makes good sense. I'm curious also how mash temps might change since the types of enzymes and where (thermally) they are active might be different.

I terms of malt and curing temps, I think drying the majority at low temp and then taking like 20-40% and curing it a bit more toasty might be a good compromise between keeping enzymes and getting maltier flavors.

I'm vexed about the metallic taste because I don't really know how to counteract something like that. As a chemist (by education at least) I'm interested to know what compounds cause this and maybe changing steeping water or brewing water chemistry it could be taken out.
 
You know I never actually bothered to research what makes sorghum have that twang. I did a lot of my research on millet and not sorghum. I would be very interested if you find anything. While I don't think you can remove the taste, it would be worthwhile to find out. Might be high zinc or magnesium content mixed with some weird phenols.

I have used malted sorghum once. It is also called milo. Wasn't that great. I do think Bard's is a solid sorghum beer though.

I will consult my gelatinizing chart but, I believe sorghum should gelatinize in the mid 150s F.

Good luck and report back what you can find out.
 
I can't say I know anything about the chemistry, but since you're a chemist you might try looking up John Taylor of the Dept. of Food Science at U. of Pretoria. There are at least two documents I have seen that he has written about malting sorghum in Africa, and he seems to understand the chemistry very well. They do some stuff with the steeping water (adding lye), but as far as I know it's only to "clean" and extract tannins from high-tannin varieties of sorghum. Google "intsormil sorghum malt" for those.

I have wondered about whether the enzyme temperature ranges change between the various grains, but experimentally it works well enough so I've stuck with the standard temperature ranges.

I have done a split like that where I keep maybe 30% unkilned, then kiln the rest to different degrees (including a pale malt equivalent) with good success. The unkilned malt still tastes and smells grassy, so that plus the major DMS problems I get (I can smell it during vorlauf!) means I end up doing 2 hour boils.

If you're really unsure about DP after kilning, you can try a little experiment I've done a few times: gel up some cornstarch and water, cool to mash temps and add crushed malt. It thins out pretty quickly once you start stirring.
 
I will consult my gelatinizing chart but, I believe sorghum should gelatinize in the mid 150s F.

Even if it were lower, you still benefit from the decoction because of the irregular modification from home malting. That goes for any grain, regardless of gelatinization temperature.
 
That is correct. Granule size will also affect gel temperature. Utilizing a stepped decoction mash would be ideal for under modified home malt.

Be careful with certain mash methods and sorghum. Certain varieties can contain a lot of tannins.

I did find out in my limited research that sorghum contains more iron on average than almost any other commercially available grain. So, if anything, sorghum can be very healthy.

I started reading up on sorghum syrup and now I think I want to buy some. It is supposed to taste much better than sorghum molasses.
 
Hmm... more iron, could that explain the metallic flavor? Or is that too naive? :)
 
I was thinking this. I am unsure the level of iron needed to be perceptable. Some studies I found put the iron level of sorghum at 8.7 mg/100g. So about .0087% of the grain.

I have also read that phytate in the husks bind with the iron making it far less digestive. I am unclear if this could change or mask the taste. Phytate also creates phytic acid in the mash which is good.

Now I am wondering what the difference would be using hulled vs. unhulled sorghum in the mash...
 
If the high iron is responcible for the "twang", I wonder if adding some food grade EDTA to the wort would drop it out of soloution and improve the flavor?
 
I'd be willing to try that out, but so far I haven't been able to find any food-grade EDTA for sale.
 
Calcium disodium EDTA might work. It is a chelating supplement some people take. I guess for people who fear they are getting lead poisoning.
 
I'll ask Cynmar if they can ship EDTA to individuals. I've had good service ordering lab supplies from them for a few years now.
 
I have unlimited access to sorghum, basically free. I usually make a summer ale with about 70% pilsner, 25% wheat, 5% oats, low IBUs, some coriander and citrus zest. Think switching the wheat with sorghum would be hugely noticeable?
 
Sorghum has a high gelatinization temp that reduces conversion. There is an article by Lyumugabe that propose a 40 deg Celcius mash, then boil of grist. Then mash with the decanted super natant of the 40 C mash. The low mash produce malt flavour and amylase and boil gelatinise the starch. In Africa maize is used as adjunct in opaque beers but one can make a decent western beer with sorghum malt with effort, although without adjuncts a sourness is present.
 
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