14 replies to this topic

[Noontime]

I transfered my GF beer into secondary last night, but it was really hard to get an accurate SG because of all the particulate in it. I guess a whole lot of hop pellet leaked out of my hop bag or something. Between that, the yeast, and the C02 I'm not confidant of the reading but it was somewhere around 1.025.Am I correct in using the same formula for alcohol that I do for wine (initial SG - current SG * 133)? If so it's already at about 6.7% alcohol. I tasted it and I think I may have gone a little too much on the bitter. I know that will mellow with time and it's still not even beer yet, but it's almost spicy its so bitter. It has good flavor, though I'm not sure if there's going to be enough residual sugar to balance all that bitter. It's a nice light milk chocolate color which is something I've never seen in a GF beer before, so hopefully the flavor will be as rich as the color. Right now it has no hops in it, but I'm thinking about dry hopping some more with another oz. of Fuggles.I'm not worried; I know it has a long way to go before being finished and I'll drink it no matter what it tastes like!

[Noontime]

Last thursday I bottled the GF beer. Last night I had a Redbridge GF beer so curiosity got the better of me and I opened up one of mine to compare (I know it still has some carbonating to do, but it had enough). Boy am I disappointed. I'm hoping things will change as everything integrates with time, but it is way out of balance. Really, really hot with alcohol. It has some nice flavors underneath, but right now I just can't get past the alcohol. It's about 7.7% abv, which is not suprising; I was just hoping other factors like flavor and sweetness would balace it out. Unfortunately so far they are not up to the task. Hopefully it gets better, but even if it doesn't, it's still a very good learning experience.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Last thursday I bottled the GF beer. Last night I had a Redbridge GF beer so curiosity got the better of me and I opened up one of mine to compare (I know it still has some carbonating to do, but it had enough). Boy am I disappointed. I'm hoping things will change as everything integrates with time, but it is way out of balance. Really, really hot with alcohol. It has some nice flavors underneath, but right now I just can't get past the alcohol. It's about 7.7% abv, which is not suprising; I was just hoping other factors like flavor and sweetness would balace it out. Unfortunately so far they are not up to the task. Hopefully it gets better, but even if it doesn't, it's still a very good learning experience.

Was there a particular reason you were shooting for such a high ABV or was this accidental? Can you tell if what IS behind the alcohol could be good?

[earthtone]

I am interested to hear how this goes man! I have a gluten free lager going right now.... tastes great from the hydro sample! A little sweet still, it's been in primary about 2 weeks and is sitting at about 1.014. Most of the fermentables came from agave syrup so I thought it would drop further.... I'll let you know how it turns out, maybe we can pool the experiments to further the gluten free brewing!

[Noontime]

Was there a particular reason you were shooting for such a high ABV or was this accidental? Can you tell if what IS behind the alcohol could be good?

It was kind of accidental...I knew there were a lot of fermentables but I was hoping other componants would balance it out. I'm not following any recipe, just doing my own thing; and I really have very little knowledge and experience with beer. I'm trying to make a "big" beer, which for gluten free seems to be kind of hard. So I had some lactose and maltodextrin in there, from what I read molasses and honey have "some" unfermentables, and I steeped some roasted teff. The color is great...very dark like a cognac, there are very good flavors underneath, it's just WAY too much alcohol. I'm also just starting to understand the use of hops (or I should say the proper use of hops )I think if I just left out the honey I'd probably be good (I can't taste any honey anyway, so apparently it was just 3 lbs of fermentables). Heres a link to the original post by the way GF beer I still think I can make a very good ale using the ingredients and techniques from this one. I just need to learn how to balance the componants. I think I'll cut down on the 60 min hop to lessen the bitter, throw more in at 45 min. to get more hop flavor, and leave out the honey. It's still changing drastically every time I taste it, so who knows? Maybe it will turn around and be great. But I'm not counting on it.

[Noontime]

I am interested to hear how this goes man! I have a gluten free lager going right now.... tastes great from the hydro sample! A little sweet still, it's been in primary about 2 weeks and is sitting at about 1.014. Most of the fermentables came from agave syrup so I thought it would drop further.... I'll let you know how it turns out, maybe we can pool the experiments to further the gluten free brewing!

Fantastic! I look forward to hearing how yours comes out. Did you post the recipe here? I did one previously that was pretty good...well more like OK. It was a bit like a Hefweizen, but a little weak. That's why I went a little over board with this one I think...over compensating.

[Big Nake]

Are there recipes for these beers someplace? I don't have any real interest in brewing these beers, but I would like to know how you guys are getting the fermentables. The one place in WI that makes a gluten-free beer (Lakefront?) makes theirs with sorghum and rice. I would think that maltiness would be tricky to get without barley or wheat but it's clearly possible. Good luck you guys.

[strangebrewer]

I am interested to hear how this goes man! I have a gluten free lager going right now.... tastes great from the hydro sample! A little sweet still, it's been in primary about 2 weeks and is sitting at about 1.014. Most of the fermentables came from agave syrup so I thought it would drop further.... I'll let you know how it turns out, maybe we can pool the experiments to further the gluten free brewing!

If you're willing to share this recipe I'd be interested in it as well. I'm up to 2 friends and a sibling with varying levels of gluten intolerance and i've been kicking around the idea but don't really know where to start.

[earthtone]

Ok well here's what I have going right now but it isn't done yet. Still lagering.1 kg Agave Syrup.5 kg Amber Agave Syrup.5 kg Brown Rice Syrup.45 kg Home Malted/Rosted Buckwheat.45 kg Home Malted Red Rice.35 kg Cereal Mashed Black/Mahogany Rice.35 kg Cereal Mashed Aromatic Basmati RiceMashed all the grain at about 154 df for an hour and a half.30 g Hallertau @ 6030 g Saaz @ 2045 g Hallertau @ 5Saf-Lager yeast - apparently gluten free.OG: 1.050And just as an update, the beer isn't done but I got the girl anyway (if you were following this one, I decided to make this gluten free beer for cute girl I met who is allergic) as I said it is at 1.014 after two weeks in primary and I am hoping it'll drop a little further.... updates to follow! Hydro sample tasted yummmmy!

[strangebrewer]

5 gallon batch I presume? What SRM range we talking? Would you compare the hydro sample flavor to anything commercial? or just unique in it's own delicious way?Thanks!

[earthtone]

Yup 5 gallons!the SRM's threw me off... it's still cloudy as it's in primary and there was probably some residual starch (not sure how much conversion I got, but definitely not 100%) but I thought with a pound of roasted grain and a pound of dark syrup it'd be dark but I would but it around 7-8 SRM.The taste? still sweet as the sucrose has a sweeter taste than maltose does and it's still high as I stated before but it has a delicious malty taste (the malted red rice smelled like Pale 2-Row when I finished malting it) with a pleasant hoppiness. Not too bitter but present. I have tasted several gluten free brews and to be honest thought they were pretty nasty - this I probably wouldn't be able to say immediately that it was not made from barley, only that it is different somehow. Good body and mouth feel, probably from the starchiness.Next time round I will proabably only do a pound of agave syrup and bump the brown rice syrup up to almost 3 pounds. That stuff is absolutely delicious. I also want to buy some amylase and get better conversion next time on the cereal mash. I have tasted sourghum extracts and frankly I think they are kinda nasty also so I went for buckwheat (tastes like grapenuts when roasted) and the red rice which like I had said early had a strong malty aroma and flavour after I finished malting them. This addresses Ken's concern about getting maltiness in the brew - malted rice is the way to go I think!anyways, more info to follow as I continue. Said cute girl happened to love dry stouts before finding out that they were the cause of her discomfort so now I need to figure out how to make a dry stout gluten free.......... so worth it though cheers!EDIT: My theory going into gluten free brewing wasn't to make something that tastes like beer brewed from barley, but to make a fermented drink that is similar but unique and delicious without lacking anything for what it isn't - which I would say many commercial gluten free brews have run into. They are trying to be beer, but without using the main ingredient. I just wanted to make something tasty and above all flavourful.

[Noontime]

Next time round I will proabably only do a pound of agave syrup and bump the brown rice syrup up to almost 3 pounds. That stuff is absolutely delicious. I also want to buy some amylase and get better conversion next time on the cereal mash. I have tasted sourghum extracts and frankly I think they are kinda nasty also so I went for buckwheat (tastes like grapenuts when roasted) and the red rice which like I had said early had a strong malty aroma and flavour after I finished malting them. This addresses Ken's concern about getting maltiness in the brew - malted rice is the way to go I think! anyways, more info to follow as I continue. Said cute girl happened to love dry stouts before finding out that they were the cause of her discomfort so now I need to figure out how to make a dry stout gluten free.......... so worth it though cheers! EDIT: My theory going into gluten free brewing wasn't to make something that tastes like beer brewed from barley, but to make a fermented drink that is similar but unique and delicious without lacking anything for what it isn't - which I would say many commercial gluten free brews have run into. They are trying to be beer, but without using the main ingredient. I just wanted to make something tasty and above all flavourful.

Congrats on your successes...the beer and the girl! I look forward to hearing more. Have you posted anything on how to malt the rice? You seem to really like the results of the rice. Also...not being experienced at all with all grain, but from what I've seen from traditional recipies the grain bill will be much more tha 7 or 8 pounds. Do you think more would be better?

[earthtone]

Ha thanks! ummm well if you are mass malting it I have no idea of the potential gravity per pound per gallon of red rice so it might get tricky to predict. I was making this as a extract/steeped grains style recipe so that the bulk of sugars come from syrups. For now I am going to stick to this method as the malting process takes a bit of effort and I wouldn't want to malt more than a couple pounds at a time this way.as to malting the grain, I soaked it for about 8 hours - rinsing every 2-3. Spread it on a cookie sheet on a damp piece of paper towel with a second damp sheet over the top. I left it in a dark warm spot for about 2 days rinsing twice a day until the acrospires (shoots) were about as long as the grains of rice and then I dried them by a method I made up/. I turn my oven on to broil for 5 minutes, turn it off and put in the grains. After a half hour I take them out and give them a turn with a lifter and continue doing this until the oven is cool again. Remove the grain (IMPORTANT), turn broiler back on and repeat. I found this way there was still some heat radiating form the element when the grain went in but not enough to damage the enzymes in the germinated rice. After it is dry and crunchy it should have a distinct "malty" smell to it. Toast or roast it after - this method worked for both buckwheat and rice so I assume it'll work for just about any starch grain.

[Noontime]

Well, it's a month in the bottle and the verdict is in...it's mediocre at best. Not bad but not really good either. With full carbonation and some time to integrate, the alcohol is much less perceptable but it's just plain unbalanced. Theres good bitterness (that has mellowed quite a bit), a bit of hop flavor (next time I will get more with later additions), and the coffee and cocoa are just barely perceptable notes. It's still thin and a bit tangy due to the sorghum. It's certainly not bad and I will happily drink it (as will my wife who seems to like it better than I), but I hope to get a smoother balance next time.

[Noontime]

Well, the GF beer is a few months old now and it has gone through yet another change. It is now an incredibly robust dark ale but still unbalanced. Now the coffee and chocolate flavors are expressing themselves more and it has a weird aftertaste...probably because much of the bitter has gone away (maybe tannin from the coffee). The alcohol is not perceptable any more either which is a good thing. Very little hop flavor and just too much going on at once. It's certainly a big flavorful ale, and is not bad...it's just not good either.I made a very citrusy hoppy IPA like beer and mixed that with it and DAMN! that's good. Knocked down the "weirdness", added much needed hop flavor and really balanced it out. I'll post about the IPA seperately.