# Gluten Free Beer - Yeast Question



## nabs478 (3/12/07)

I am gonna make a gluten free ale later this week.

I know people sell gluten free liquid yeast sack for this purpose. I am told that the difference is that the small amount of wort in the pack is gluten free wort, and if you use a normal liquid yeast, then the liquid yeast pack will contribute some amount of gluten to the beer.

I would be surprised if even using a normal liquid yeast pack would make that much difference, particularly as I am doing 150L batches as it would be very much watered down. I plan on using regular dry yeast for my brew, and I am hoping that there will be no gluten left in it from when they cultured this yeast. Does anyone have any experience with using these types of yeast for gluten free beers? If so, I would like to know how much irritation they received, and normally how sensitive they are to gluten?


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## geoff_tewierik (3/12/07)

Asked a similar question of the new GF kits released shortly.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=19122&hl=

Answer is at the bottom.


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## Mothballs (3/12/07)

Pip the entire range of Fermentis dried yeast (i.e. safale,saflager etc) are gluten free and will be perfect to use in gluten free beer. I actually emailed Fermentis last week to confirm that there yeast was gluten free and received the response below that they are gluten free.

_"Dear Anthony, 
Our brewing yeasts are certified gluten free, since they are grown on non grain substrates.
Feel free to contact our distributor Bintani in Australia, should you need further information on our products.
Kind regards, 


Sophie Castelain

Fermentis Division of S.I.Lesaffre"_

I have made a few gluten free beers this year using Safale US05 exclusively with good results. I have successfully used malted sorghum grain which requires a full decoction method to mash it properly and had good results. The procedure I used was based on info from the Sillyaks site and adjusted to suit my brewing set up. The downside of using sorghum grain is the time it takes to brew. If you go down this path be prepared to spend at least 7-8 hours going through the process as it is not as simple as using malted barley and wheat with a single temp infusion mash. If you are keen it is definitely worth the effort. The beer will obviously be different to barley and wheat based beers but it is beer all the same.

I have more recently used one of the Briess sorghum syrups with similar properties to liquid malt extract to make gluten free beers also with good results. The benefit of this is the time taken to make a batch of beer is significantly reduced to a couple of hours. I personally think that the all grain versions are better beers but for a lot less work the sorghum syrup makes a very comparable beer. We should have the Gluten Free beer kits ready to go this week. For some info go to our website Link and click on the Gluten Free brewing link.

Cheers
Anthony


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## nabs478 (4/12/07)

Thanks very much for the info.

I have a girlfriend who loves beer but is a ceoliac (I relaly should be able to spell it by now!). Those gluten free extract kits look good, but a little on the pricy side. I think I will stick with the AG version for th emoment. It will take me a full day but I wont have to do it very often if I make a full batch with 25kg! 

Do you know where to get any other gluten free grains, other than rice and corn, i.e. buckwheat?


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## Mothballs (4/12/07)

What are you planning to use as the base grain? I have used Amaranth in conjunction with malted sorghum before to try and add a little sweetness to the finished beer as the sorghum tends to give a slight sour taste. Amaranth is a South American cereal crop which the aztecs used to make beer. I bought it in the cereal section at the supermarket. It is an adjunct and will need to be used with malted grains to convert. Be aware that if you are using malted sorghum you are limited to about 10-15% adjunct as it does not have a lot of diastatic power for conversion of non malted adjuncts. If you like the taste of honey it can be used very easily as it can simply added late in the boil and is gluten free. 

Cheers
Anthony


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## scott_penno (26/12/09)

Hi Mothballs,

I'm looking to make gluten free beer for a neighbour. Tried following the URL on the sillyaks web site mentioned above but it's no longer there. If you (or anyone else) have a copy, is there any chance of posting it?

sap.


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## geoff_tewierik (26/12/09)

Looks like they took the info down when they discontinued making the beer:

http://www.sillyyak.com.au/beer.html

Noticed they don't mention the O'Brien beers.


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## Millet Man (26/12/09)

geoff_tewierik said:


> Looks like they took the info down when they discontinued making the beer:
> 
> http://www.sillyyak.com.au/beer.html
> 
> Noticed they don't mention the O'Brien beers.


There is a story behind that...let's just say it was more to do with competition and less to do with the quality of our beers - which seem to be very popular with the drinking public and managed to score a few awards along the way. Business is good for us.  

Sappas - do a search for gluten free brewing on this site and you should find some instructions a posted a while ago.

Cheers, Andrew.


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## geoff_tewierik (26/12/09)

Millet Man said:


> There is a story behind that...let's just say it was more to do with competition and less to do with the quality of our beers - which seem to be very popular with the drinking public and managed to score a few awards along the way. Business is good for us.



Thought that'd be the case


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## SpillsMostOfIt (26/12/09)

geoff_tewierik said:


> Thought that'd be the case



Based on my limited experience, the best man won, but that is completely off-topic, I guess...


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## matthendry (26/12/09)

Wyeast have 2 Gluten free Yeasts for microbrewers .

http://www.wyeastlab.com/pressrelease_deta...ressreleaseID=5

Danstar and Fermentis dry yeasts are grown on molasses and are both certified to be Gluten free.


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## ozpowell (26/12/09)

Pip. said:


> I would be surprised if even using a normal liquid yeast pack would make that much difference, particularly as I am doing 150L batches as it would be very much watered down.



Hi Pip,

My mother is Coeliac and has always been very careful to avoid consuming any gluten in her diet, no matter how small. She can't even eat products that have been prepared with equipment used to prepare other products containing gluten. Your girl friend should know how much (if any) tolerance she has before she suffers the side-effects.

BTW - my mum doesn't drink beer so I haven't had to bother trying to make GF beer. Just hope I don't develop coeliac in later life as it does run in families....  

Cheers,
Michael.


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## manticle (26/12/09)

Pip. said:


> I am gonna make a gluten free ale later this week.
> 
> I know people sell gluten free liquid yeast sack for this purpose. I am told that the difference is that the small amount of wort in the pack is gluten free wort, and if you use a normal liquid yeast, then the liquid yeast pack will contribute some amount of gluten to the beer.
> 
> I would be surprised if even using a normal liquid yeast pack would make that much difference, particularly as I am doing 150L batches as it would be very much watered down. I plan on using regular dry yeast for my brew, and I am hoping that there will be no gluten left in it from when they cultured this yeast. Does anyone have any experience with using these types of yeast for gluten free beers? If so, I would like to know how much irritation they received, and normally how sensitive they are to gluten?



Some people can be super sensitive and it can have long term health issues.

My mum is a coeliac and she's been made sick for days by consuming a cappucino with chocolate dust (maltodextrin or something similar as an ingredient in the choc) or eating chips cooked in the same oil as battered fish.


I'd go for a yeast about which there is absolutely no doubt.


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