Gf Oz Pale Ale Pilsener Beer-type Stuff

[angus_grant]

Well my sister is gluten intolerant and has given up drinking beer. And has not entertained the thought of paying $70 for a carton of GF free. She doesn't like beer that much. So I investigated GF brewing when I saw the sorghum syrup at Craftbrewer for $20. Much cheaper than the $60 kits I have seen around the place.

I found an Oz Pale Ale recipe on the Internet somewhere and have tweaked it a bit to make it a bit more interesting. My sister replied when I asked her, what sort of beer she wanted "I dunno, something Australian. Pure blonde?". meehh... So here is my GF Oz Pale Ale Pilsener beer-type stuff.

So recipe is:
2.8kg sorghum syrup
10g Northern Brewer 60 mins
12g Saaz 15 mins
12g Saaz 0 mins/flame-out
1 pk Safale US-05 yeast

My sister quite like the taste of the kit Saaz pilsener I had on tap when she was here last. I had heaps of help and advice from Anthony at Craftbrewer so I may keep a bottle, age it for a bit and take it in for him to sample (if it tastes nice, then he can even think of it as part-payment for helping ) and provide some more advice. If I can knock these kits out every 2 months or so for my sister for $25, then we may save another beer drinker.

So I boiled it all up last nice and it smelt quite grainy. "Kind of" similar to barley as in grainy, but still different. Smelt unique and interesting. I may keep a few bottles for myself and age them to see what they taste like. Am really looking forward to the first hydrometer sample in 10 days or so.

I figured for the first batch I wouldn't add any adjuncts or specialty grains just to see what the base sorghum tasted like.

One question which I haven't really found an answer to: what do people carbonate in the bottle with? I have found a coupe of recipes that use corn syrup for bottling. Anyone have a suggestion on amounts? I may try bulk priming this time. Seems like an easier way to do it than measure into each bottle.

And I have been kegging for the last 6 months, so cleaning 20 tallies and 20 stubbies is going to suck!! I should con my sister into doing it. he he..

 

[pcmfisher]

A couple of things I have found with Gluten Free brewing- They take a long time to ferment and there is lots of sediment in the fermenter, like above the tap. May like to rack.

I don't know if you should be considering specialty grains. Being barley and wheat etc wouldn't they contain gluten?

Corn syrup is maltodextrin which in not very fermentable so not much good for carbonating.
You may have seen yankee sites that mention corn starch which is dextrose. Use this or plain sugar 100-150g per batch depending on carbonation levels required.

 

[angus_grant]

Certainly some bubbling from the air-lock this morning so at least some activity going on. I will have another look tonight to see if the level of activity has increased.

And there was a LOT of gunk at the bottom of the boil pot which was completely unexpected seeing as it was an extract brew. I did use a hops bag so didn't expect that much gunk at the bottom. I'll have to give it a second scrub tonight to make sure I get rid of it all.

And it was very murky when I stirred the fermenter after yeast pitching to oxygenate it. I have been filtering my own beer straight from the fermenter tap as I keg and force carbonate to get rid of the yeasties (I am slightly allergic to yeast). I think for this one I will cold crash and siphon into a second fermenter as you suggest. Otherwise the bottles will be very murky..

Anthony was mentioning candi syrup and some other like additions. Certainly would avoid barley or wheat based grains to avoid gluten.

OK, maybe corn starch is what I was seeing. Hmm, I'll have to dig up some calculations on bulk priming for bottles. has been a while since I have done it and I just used to add a carbonating drop into the bottle. Thanks for the help...

 

[Bribie G]

Does she like cider? Some very acceptable cider kits around nowadays.

 

[angus_grant]

Hmm, not sure she has ever tried a cider. I'll ask her about it when I catch up with her next.

I'm quite interested to see how this beer tastes...

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Currently fermenting a gf beer, can attribute slow ferment to gf beer.

Mine is CB sorghum syrup, amber candy sugar, corn syrup from chinese grocer.

Us05 and Chinook, centennial to about 30ibu.

I find that after one lightly hopped megaswill clone that the sorghum bitterness comes through too much, so upped hop flavour to mask.

 

[angus_grant]

Mine was hopped to 19 IBU as it is for my sister and she generally drinks Aus mega-swill. I didn't want to make it too flavoursome and interesting.

That being said, I think the next batch I may have to up the Saaz as the sorghum may come through too strongly and overpower everything else. Time will tell..... And I am excited about the first gravity test so I can scientifically taste the sample and make some notes.

 

[felten]

There was a brewing network show on gluten free beer that got some good reviews. http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/824

If you're new to the BN, YMMV. Some people love them, some hate them.

 

[angus_grant]

Thanks for the link Felten. Downloading it as I type. They have some other interesting episodes which I'll look at downloading after listening to the GF episode.

It is still bubbling away (about half the rate of normal beer) in the fermenter at 18 degrees. I'm shocked at the amount of crap at the bottom of the fermentor already. Is it time to take a sample yet????

 

[angus_grant]

I listened to the pod-cast. It took a loooong time for them to get to the point. It was interesting rambling though. Will probably subscribe to the pod cast.

Well, it finished fermenting two days ago. FG of 1.009 over 3 days which is about what the recipe said it would end up at. Racked to 2nd fermenter and currently cold conditioning. Will bottle (wahhhhh) this Sunday and leave in the bottles for 2 weeks before sampling one.

The taste is something a little unusual. Certainly the saaz spiciness comes through more than expected but that is probably in combination with the sorghum twang I have been reading about. Will be interesting to give to my sister and see what she thinks...

 

[angus_grant]

My week of cold conditioning ended last night with bottling of the (g)filsner. Man, bottling blows after kegging for almost a year. ha ha...

I ended up being very lazy and using carbonation drops in the bottles. It's been quite a while since I have bottled anything. My capper is decidedly rusty and very un-blingy.. Will get out the wire brush on the weekend and see if I can pretty it up. It may be a lost cause though. I'll be going in to Craftbrewer this weekend to blow my birthday money on a grain mill (woot!!) so will see what their cappers go for.

Taste was still fairly similar to my earlier tasting. I am quite excited about tasting this in 3 weeks time. 28 stubbies and 12 tallies of GF beer. Now the wait begins until I actually see whether my sister even likes this stuff. 2 of the tallies aren't in the shot as they were from the bottom of the fermentor and I will use them as testers. Geez, I am a good brother taking the bottom of the barrel as my testers.

 

[grantsglutenfreehomebrew]

Got abit lost with the pilsner style but using us-05 yeast. I use s-23 for pilsner. Yeast starter on honey and ferment at 11c. I also by 2 of 1.5kg sorghum syrups and use 300g for priming later on. The constant cold temp will remove some of those sorghum flavours.

 

[Darkman]

Got abit lost with the pilsner style but using us-05 yeast. I use s-23 for pilsner. Yeast starter on honey and ferment at 11c. I also by 2 of 1.5kg sorghum syrups and use 300g for priming later on. The constant cold temp will remove some of those sorghum flavours.

I'm just wondering if you could hide those sorghum flavours if you chose a saison yeast which produces some strong phnolics and esters.

 

[angus_grant]

yeh, it was a bit tongue in cheek calling it a pilsener due to the saaz. I will try the s23 next time to see what its effect on the over-all taste is.

Hmm, I didn't bother with a yeast starter for mine. I don't actually bother for any of my brews. Maybe I should think about doing one for these sorghum-based beers.

And fermented at 18 degrees due to the US-05

So you use 300g of the sorghum syrup for priming?

 

[grantsglutenfreehomebrew]

yeh, it was a bit tongue in cheek calling it a pilsener due to the saaz. I will try the s23 next time to see what its effect on the over-all taste is.

Hmm, I didn't bother with a yeast starter for mine. I don't actually bother for any of my brews. Maybe I should think about doing one for these sorghum-based beers.

And fermented at 18 degrees due to the US-05

So you use 300g of the sorghum syrup for priming?

300g of sorghum syrup. 1 cup of water and bring to boil for 10 mins. Using a syringe I add 5 mil to a 330ml stubby. This method works great with a honey primer as well.