I did a lot of research looking up gluten free recipes. Not knowing much about sorghum and how it would react with hop bitterness, I wondered why you couldn't just hop the shit out of the extract. The main problem with sorghum it seems is that it is fairly sweet, and most things people can add to get color, body, and mouthfeel seem to be more fermentables like molasses or sugar. I found a couple recipes for gluten free IPAs, and taking some of their additions, with my own thoughts on trying to see what happens when you just add a lot of hops I came up with this recipe:
Steep: 1/2 lb of oatmeal
6lbs of Sorghum extract
1 lb of sucanat -(which is basically pure dried non refined cane sugar. It retains molasses flavor and color as a result)
8 oz Maltodextrin (to add body and head retention).
Hops:
1 oz Chinook @ 60
.5 oz Chinook @ 30
.5 oz Centennial @ 15
.5 oz Chinook @ 10
.5 oz Centennial @ 5
1 oz Centennial @ 1
Yeast: Safale US-05 (* apparently many liquid yeasts aren't gluten free)
Here's the weird thing, fermentation. The beer started fermenting early on, and has held steady for more than a week
now. The weid thing is that there isn't a lot of foam or krausen at the top (I'm assuming this must be due to the lack of glutenous material?) It's odd, check out these pics. It has dropped in gravity, so I know it's doing the job, but it just seems to be slow and steady. If anyone who has experience with brewing gluten free can explain this, please let me know.
More to Come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer
19 comments:
I think it might make sense to be low foam. Isn't the foam in part based on protein? And I am pretty sure that gluten is a form of protein. So the result seems logical.
What no nifty name? Bearded Brewer reputation is on the line. You may soon become the Fu Man Chu Brewer.
There is a name, but it's a bit of an inside joke and I thought I'd spare the public a lame explanation :)
The beard is still in tact :)
This is totally awesome. As I am the "friend and colleague" mentioned here, I can only say I'm impressed and touched at the same time with your efforts to make this for me. I promise I'll drink the whoel thing even if it doesn't taste good! But I'm sure it will...judging from your crazy chemical knowledge of all things brewing-related, it seems like you may have figured it out. Can't wait. And we may have to come up with a new name that's not such a weird inside joke...
Oh...Now you have to tell us the name.
I've only had the Bard's Gluten free beer and it tasted horrible. I can't bring myself to drink it unless I had to and sometimes I wonder how someone who has tried anything else, but needs gluten free, could bring themselves to be ok with it. That is just a tough situation altogether.
Sounds like you've got a good idea of what you are doing. I'd love to hear how this turns out. Is there anything other than sorghum a person could use?
Mike
Mike's Brew Review
I think the first poster got it right on, no proteins from malt so very little foam. What was your starting gravity Eric? And help me out on Gluten free... is it just wheat and barley that they have to avoid or is it a sloo of other grains? Would love to try this one just to see what it's like. Cheers, DA
The gluten free does mean no wheat or barley. The only real base you can use is something like Sorghum or similar grains (quiona, rice). I used Oatmeal to give it some body, but couldnt steep with much else. The OG was 1.052. When I transferred it, there was a definite hoppiness, so I'm hopeful, it was a tad bitter.
I agree with you Mike that it is difficult to drink a gluten free beer if you have had the other. I know Jess drinks a lot of ciders, but misses beer and the gluten free beers are at least similar.
My wife was just told to cut down gluten in her diet, this sound like a beer I may be interested in trying for her sake!
Definitely a fun experiment for a noble cause. Can't wait to hear more about your results. Cheers!
I would like to exchange links with your site www.blogger.com
Is this possible?
Hi,
I have celiac disease and a friend and I are trying to brew some gluten free beer. This recipe looks good, though I though I'd let you know that while oats do not have gluten themselves, they can be easily contaminated because they are often processed in the same plant as wheat and barley products. If you use a brand of oatmeal that says "gluten free" you should be good, but if not it can be contaminated and give your friend or anyone else with celiac disease a reaction.
Thanks for the posts.
Anonymous, sure you can exchange links. Just send me yours.As for the oats, I had read that and called my friend about it. She said that oats don't bother her, but it is something that other people brewing gluten free should pay attention to.
Interesting recipe. I'd be a bit concerned about steeping oatmeal since there are no enzymes present to convert the starch.
I would like to exchange links with your site www.beardedbrewing.org
Is this possible?
Hi, I just googled 'gluten free IPA' and stumbled upon this blog post from July. I'm very curious as to how this turned out. My girlfriend is gluten-free and I'm considering trying my hand in the art of fermentation in hopes of providing her with something palatable. Any feedback you could give regarding your GF IPA experiment would be sincerely appreciated.
-Tyler
Hey just joining, glad to be here! I'm Lucy and I am inspired by life, I'm a fan of running and getting wholesome :)
Sooo anyways, adequate info about me, see you close to and hello once more haha.
PS, how do I change the little picture thingy like some people have, I like it but can't figure it out haha
I'll echo Tyler's comment--I'd like to brew a gluten free IPA for my fiancee (the beer she's really missed since getting the celiac's diagnosis). How'd your recipe turn out? Have any suggested modifications?
Great recipe! I am brewing a batch right now. I found some gluten-free oats (hard to find) so I decided to keep them in the recipe. I did add 50 percent more maltodextrin. We will see how it turns out. Do you think it would be worthwhile to dry hop in a secondary?
Hello! My wife is a huge hop head That is allergic to gluten. Thank you google! Let me know how it goes! Denver Co.
Mattkingdunn@gmail.com
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