mofox1
Wubba lubba dub dub!
In the name of doing a good deed for a mate, I've run a vague hand wavey type experiment.
The aim?
Provide said mate with gluten free beer that was made with barley malt, not raided from the wife's stash of the latest health super-food products.
The ingredient in the spotlight?
Clarity Ferm by White Labs. *Note this product does not claim to make beer 100% gluten free, so don't go thinking it's safe for those who have severe gluten allergies.
Brew day:
I'll spare most of the details, not because they're not relevant, but because I either can't remember or don't want to consult my log book.
It's a LME based brew 75% barley & 25% wheat for the extracts, heavy on the crystal (12% total) and hopped to 45 IBU with Cascade & Citra, using the Cascade more for bittering, Citra for aroma & dry hopping. White labs WLP008 East Coast Ale for yeast.
After doling out equal amounts of wort into two fermenters, one was dosed with the Clarity Ferm. Both were fermented at 19deg for a week before dry hopping & being bumped up to 22deg to finish. CC'd for almost a week and bottled.
The result:
It's beer and it's tastes good. The dosed beer was given the thumbs up by my mate, and suffered no adverse (gluten related) effects. He declined to verify he's still allergic to the non-dosed batch.
I felt the dosed beer was missing some of the "full" mouth feel that I was expecting from a crystal heavy beer. There was less aroma from the dry hops than the non-dosed beer. Again, none of which my mate was complaining about.
But wait, there's more... Clarity Ferm was originally intended to make beer clearer, the gluten thing sounds like a lucky side effect. So here it is:
It's pretty obvious which one has been dosed. But the *really* interesting effect it had was on head retention. The dosed beer didn't hold a good head for very long, whereas the non-dosed one kept a good 3-4mm head the whole time.
Experiemental errors: Probably heaps. There was a slight OG difference between the two so I probably added more water to one fermenter than the other (different shapes). The dosed one was the lower OG, so this could account for all the taste differences. Fairly sure it shouldn't have affected the head retention that much though.
Verdict: Mate can now drink beer. He pretty effing happy.
The aim?
Provide said mate with gluten free beer that was made with barley malt, not raided from the wife's stash of the latest health super-food products.
The ingredient in the spotlight?
Clarity Ferm by White Labs. *Note this product does not claim to make beer 100% gluten free, so don't go thinking it's safe for those who have severe gluten allergies.
Brew day:
I'll spare most of the details, not because they're not relevant, but because I either can't remember or don't want to consult my log book.
It's a LME based brew 75% barley & 25% wheat for the extracts, heavy on the crystal (12% total) and hopped to 45 IBU with Cascade & Citra, using the Cascade more for bittering, Citra for aroma & dry hopping. White labs WLP008 East Coast Ale for yeast.
After doling out equal amounts of wort into two fermenters, one was dosed with the Clarity Ferm. Both were fermented at 19deg for a week before dry hopping & being bumped up to 22deg to finish. CC'd for almost a week and bottled.
The result:
It's beer and it's tastes good. The dosed beer was given the thumbs up by my mate, and suffered no adverse (gluten related) effects. He declined to verify he's still allergic to the non-dosed batch.
I felt the dosed beer was missing some of the "full" mouth feel that I was expecting from a crystal heavy beer. There was less aroma from the dry hops than the non-dosed beer. Again, none of which my mate was complaining about.
But wait, there's more... Clarity Ferm was originally intended to make beer clearer, the gluten thing sounds like a lucky side effect. So here it is:
It's pretty obvious which one has been dosed. But the *really* interesting effect it had was on head retention. The dosed beer didn't hold a good head for very long, whereas the non-dosed one kept a good 3-4mm head the whole time.
Experiemental errors: Probably heaps. There was a slight OG difference between the two so I probably added more water to one fermenter than the other (different shapes). The dosed one was the lower OG, so this could account for all the taste differences. Fairly sure it shouldn't have affected the head retention that much though.
Verdict: Mate can now drink beer. He pretty effing happy.
