Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Beer #1: Brown Ale
Luckily for me, I'm not starting from scratch - folks all around the world have worked on making gluten-free homebrew. Some of the best resources are available at HomebrewTalk's Gluten Free Brewing discussion forum. I selected a recipe for a Gluten Free American Brown Ale as my first attempt, with some slight modifications that I thought would work well. The recipe I used:
6 lbs. sorghum syrup (15 minutes)
1 lb toasted buckwheat (steeped at 170 degrees F for 20 minutes)
1 lb toasted millet (steeped at 170 degrees F for 20 minutes)
1 oz Fuggles hops (60 minutes)
1 oz Challenger hops (60 minutes)
0.75 oz Kent Goldings hops (15 minutes)
1 tsp Irish moss (15 minutes)
1.5 lbs oz dark Belgian candi sugar (15 minutes)
Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast
This recipe was for 5 gallons but I was only making a 2 gallon batch, so I reduced the proportions accordingly.
I was able to buy the buckwheat toasted but had to roast the millet myself. I placed it in a cookie sheet in a single layer and, starting at 250 degrees, raised the temperature 25 degrees every 15 minutes until it was nicely darkened, about 1.5 hours.
I had a large amount of boiloff, I guess due to the low volume, so I had to add a half gallon of water to reach the full volume and a starting gravity of 1.056.
A week and a half later, the beer was still very hazy, with lots of suspended particulate matter. I racked to secondary and let it sit for another week. By the end of the second week a significant additional amount of trub had developed and the beer was noticeably more clear, so I bottled it. Final gravity measured a low 1.007, giving an alcohol percentage of 5%. This measurement did not change between primary and secondary fermentations.
The initial taste of the beer from the secondary was floral in both smell and taste, a little sour and sweet, and a fairly opaque light brown in color. I never like to evaluate a beer at this stage, warm and uncarbonated, but this beer seemed neither terrible nor very good. We will see how it tastes for real in a week or two when it's done carbonating and conditioning.
6 lbs. sorghum syrup (15 minutes)
1 lb toasted buckwheat (steeped at 170 degrees F for 20 minutes)
1 lb toasted millet (steeped at 170 degrees F for 20 minutes)
1 oz Fuggles hops (60 minutes)
1 oz Challenger hops (60 minutes)
0.75 oz Kent Goldings hops (15 minutes)
1 tsp Irish moss (15 minutes)
1.5 lbs oz dark Belgian candi sugar (15 minutes)
Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast
This recipe was for 5 gallons but I was only making a 2 gallon batch, so I reduced the proportions accordingly.
I was able to buy the buckwheat toasted but had to roast the millet myself. I placed it in a cookie sheet in a single layer and, starting at 250 degrees, raised the temperature 25 degrees every 15 minutes until it was nicely darkened, about 1.5 hours.
I had a large amount of boiloff, I guess due to the low volume, so I had to add a half gallon of water to reach the full volume and a starting gravity of 1.056.
A week and a half later, the beer was still very hazy, with lots of suspended particulate matter. I racked to secondary and let it sit for another week. By the end of the second week a significant additional amount of trub had developed and the beer was noticeably more clear, so I bottled it. Final gravity measured a low 1.007, giving an alcohol percentage of 5%. This measurement did not change between primary and secondary fermentations.
The initial taste of the beer from the secondary was floral in both smell and taste, a little sour and sweet, and a fairly opaque light brown in color. I never like to evaluate a beer at this stage, warm and uncarbonated, but this beer seemed neither terrible nor very good. We will see how it tastes for real in a week or two when it's done carbonating and conditioning.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Gluten free homebrewing: background reading
Why gluten-free homebrew?
Many people can't or choose not to eat gluten. The most common reason is celiac disease, which causes a serious reaction to even tiny amounts of gluten. Others are intolerant to larger amounts of gluten or choose not to eat it for other reasons. Regardless of the reason, these folks can't drink normal barley-based beer.
I have a couple friends in this category, and figured that I could easily homebrew them up some gluten-free beer. After all, someone must have done this before, right? Apparently, not so much. There's a gluten-free brewing forum on HomebrewTalk.com, but there are more questions than answers.
A warning
I am neither a doctor nor a professional brewer. It's possible I may be wrong in something here - use your brain. Talk with your doctor about any questions. Do not consume anything that you think will make you sick. Also, be aware that the standard for "gluten free" allows very small amounts of gluten. I try to make everything here truly free of any gluten particles at all by using naturally gluten-free ingredients, but you never know.
What's known so far?
There are many gluten-free grains that can be used in homebrewing, but they all suffer from one problem or another. Generally, they have low starch content, low diastatic power, or a taste that doesn't go well in beer. Here are the options I'm aware of:
Corn, rice: Corn, corn syrup (which is essentially just wort made from corn), rice and rice syrup are used by commercial and home brewers to add fermentable sugars to the brew. They work really well at adding sugars and producing a more alcoholic beer. However, they do not contribute much taste, so they tend to dilute the flavor of a beer and aren't really suitable as the main flavoring ingredient. They might work in some pale styles, though. They do not have any enzymatic (diastatic) power which means they must be malted with a high-enzyme grain.
Oats: Oats contain a substance similar to gluten that is banned for some people. Also, the typical method of growing oats contaminates them with wheat. However, gluten-free oats are available, and since oats do have enzymatic power they might be sufficient to convert other grains. They contribute a lot of protein, which will make the beer cloudy, and a fair bit of flavor, which could be overpowering in high doses.
Sorghum: This is the main base malt for most commercial gluten free beers. It's an African grain with relatively high diastatic power and a flavor somewhat like barley, though with a floral and sour taste that some find off-putting. Breiss makes a sorghum extract that is the primary way people have homebrewed gluten-free beer to this point. The primary downside to sorghum, other than the taste, is that it is not widely available in raw or malted form in the US.
Millet: Millet is another African grain traditionally used for brewing on that continent. It also has relatively high diastatic power and has a fairly neutral flavor. Hulled millet is widely available and inexpensive, but millet suitable for malting is not.
Quinoa: Quinoa is used in traditional American beverages. However, it lacks enzymes and was traditionally chewed to break down the sugars. Although it is widely available, it is relatively expensive.
Buckwheat: Buckwheat, despite the name, does not contain gluten but does contribute a wheat-like taste, which may be useful to constructing beer that tastes "normal". It is low in diastatic power.
Yeast
Dry yeast is propagated on a gluten-free medium, but liquid yeast is not. White Labs yeast vials have sufficiently low gluten that they will meet the technical standard for gluten free when diluted into a 5 gallon batch of beer, but there will still be some gluten in there, which many people can't tolerate. If you need to use a yeast strain that's only available as a liquid yeast, the best way to do it is to isolate some in a growth medium like gelatin or agar (both GF), then grow it into a starter using a gluten-free substrate.
Where to start and where to go
The easy way to do this is to use the Breiss sorghum extract, adding other GF grains as steeping grains. The hard way is to obtain and malt grains for an all-grain brew. The reason to go the hard way is to vastly expand the possible flavors you can create.
Here's the game plan: beer #1 went in the fermenter a few weeks ago and beer #2 went in a couple days ago. Both beers will be described in upcoming posts. Both are sorghum extract beers. I am going to explore the possibilities of sorghum extract over the next few weeks, while trying to find sources for maltable grains. Target styles include brown ales, IPAs and buckwheat ale. Then I'm going to explore all-grain brews, where the sky's the limit. I'll keep you posted throughout - the goal is to expand the knowledge of the GF homebrewing community. Thanks for listening and talk to you soon!
Dave
Many people can't or choose not to eat gluten. The most common reason is celiac disease, which causes a serious reaction to even tiny amounts of gluten. Others are intolerant to larger amounts of gluten or choose not to eat it for other reasons. Regardless of the reason, these folks can't drink normal barley-based beer.
I have a couple friends in this category, and figured that I could easily homebrew them up some gluten-free beer. After all, someone must have done this before, right? Apparently, not so much. There's a gluten-free brewing forum on HomebrewTalk.com, but there are more questions than answers.
A warning
I am neither a doctor nor a professional brewer. It's possible I may be wrong in something here - use your brain. Talk with your doctor about any questions. Do not consume anything that you think will make you sick. Also, be aware that the standard for "gluten free" allows very small amounts of gluten. I try to make everything here truly free of any gluten particles at all by using naturally gluten-free ingredients, but you never know.
What's known so far?
There are many gluten-free grains that can be used in homebrewing, but they all suffer from one problem or another. Generally, they have low starch content, low diastatic power, or a taste that doesn't go well in beer. Here are the options I'm aware of:
Corn, rice: Corn, corn syrup (which is essentially just wort made from corn), rice and rice syrup are used by commercial and home brewers to add fermentable sugars to the brew. They work really well at adding sugars and producing a more alcoholic beer. However, they do not contribute much taste, so they tend to dilute the flavor of a beer and aren't really suitable as the main flavoring ingredient. They might work in some pale styles, though. They do not have any enzymatic (diastatic) power which means they must be malted with a high-enzyme grain.
Oats: Oats contain a substance similar to gluten that is banned for some people. Also, the typical method of growing oats contaminates them with wheat. However, gluten-free oats are available, and since oats do have enzymatic power they might be sufficient to convert other grains. They contribute a lot of protein, which will make the beer cloudy, and a fair bit of flavor, which could be overpowering in high doses.
Sorghum: This is the main base malt for most commercial gluten free beers. It's an African grain with relatively high diastatic power and a flavor somewhat like barley, though with a floral and sour taste that some find off-putting. Breiss makes a sorghum extract that is the primary way people have homebrewed gluten-free beer to this point. The primary downside to sorghum, other than the taste, is that it is not widely available in raw or malted form in the US.
Millet: Millet is another African grain traditionally used for brewing on that continent. It also has relatively high diastatic power and has a fairly neutral flavor. Hulled millet is widely available and inexpensive, but millet suitable for malting is not.
Quinoa: Quinoa is used in traditional American beverages. However, it lacks enzymes and was traditionally chewed to break down the sugars. Although it is widely available, it is relatively expensive.
Buckwheat: Buckwheat, despite the name, does not contain gluten but does contribute a wheat-like taste, which may be useful to constructing beer that tastes "normal". It is low in diastatic power.
Yeast
Dry yeast is propagated on a gluten-free medium, but liquid yeast is not. White Labs yeast vials have sufficiently low gluten that they will meet the technical standard for gluten free when diluted into a 5 gallon batch of beer, but there will still be some gluten in there, which many people can't tolerate. If you need to use a yeast strain that's only available as a liquid yeast, the best way to do it is to isolate some in a growth medium like gelatin or agar (both GF), then grow it into a starter using a gluten-free substrate.
Where to start and where to go
The easy way to do this is to use the Breiss sorghum extract, adding other GF grains as steeping grains. The hard way is to obtain and malt grains for an all-grain brew. The reason to go the hard way is to vastly expand the possible flavors you can create.
Here's the game plan: beer #1 went in the fermenter a few weeks ago and beer #2 went in a couple days ago. Both beers will be described in upcoming posts. Both are sorghum extract beers. I am going to explore the possibilities of sorghum extract over the next few weeks, while trying to find sources for maltable grains. Target styles include brown ales, IPAs and buckwheat ale. Then I'm going to explore all-grain brews, where the sky's the limit. I'll keep you posted throughout - the goal is to expand the knowledge of the GF homebrewing community. Thanks for listening and talk to you soon!
Dave
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