Hi! New Gluten Free member

[Ironside]

Hi All,

I've been doing Extracts and MJ cider pouches for a couple of years now. I'm keen to learn more about different varieties of Beer! I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease about 15 years ago, so I well and truly missed the beginning of the Craft Beer explosion. When I stopped drinking beer the most exciting thing to happen recently was the introduction of 'cold-filtered' beers. So, really trying to understand the descriptions of the flavours of the styles being described can be difficult as I have no reference point.
Is there a good site or page that can describe the flavours for a noob (seeing as I can't actually try any of them).
Other than that any tips, tricks or info would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Nigel

 

[Bribie G]

Cold filtering, at below zero degrees, has been around for over 25 years. It removes probably more protein than normal brewery filtering, but whether it results in a beer that coeleacs can drink I dunno. It was regarded as a bit of a marketing stunt IIRC. The two main Australian examples, Carlton Cold and Hahn Ice are pretty much dead in the water and have been reformulated as mid strengths. Expect to see their demise.

Are you able to try a bottle without too catastrophic results?
There's a lot of gluten free discussion on the forum if you are looking to try GF extract brewing.

 

[manticle]

If you want to read descriptions of styles, simply type beer styles into google and you'll get a number of decent pages.

BJCP is one. That publishes guidelines each year for use in amateur competition.

Here is another: https://www.craftbeer.com/beer-styles

Don't take any as unshakeable gospel. Everything is evolving and there are much deeper forays into beer style and history but save that for later.

In regards to gluten free, there is a product called clarity-ferm which removes most. My mum is a coeliac and knowing how absolute her intolerance is, I'd hesitate to suggest it's total.

Otherwise grains like sorghum (malted or in syrup form) can make GF beer.

Are you familiar with O'brien's brewing?

 

[Ironside]

Thanks,

Bribie G - Yeah, Carlton Cold and Hahn Ice had only been around for a year or two when I was diagnosed, there was no Gluten Free examples of commerical beer available at the time so I had to accept to no longer have beer.

Mantile - Thanks for the Link, it is what I was after. I'm aware of Clarity-FIrm, yeah, not suitable for Coeliacs in Aust. I've got to remember to keep that in mind if reading an American site. Yes, very familiar with O'briens brewing, I tried to get an example of their IPA, or brown last night, but the Dan Murphys didn't have them.

I've done a couple of the GF lagers off the receipe that Country Brewer supply -
3kg Sorghum Syrup
18g Sticklebract - boiling hop
15g Pacific Gem- finishing hop
Saflager S-23

I'm going to try adding 500g of Rice malt at beginning of boil to try get rid of some of the sorghum after taste

 

[Bribie G]

I see you have a couple of Asian groceries in Orange. If one of them is slanted towards Chinese you might be able to get some of this rice maltose syrup, comes in various brands in similar tubs. It has a faintly golden syrupy taste and goes great in lagers, I use heaps when I can get my hands on it and it's a third of the price (about $2) of supermarket syrups.

 

[Roosterboy]

I have been trying to get a distributor for this company in Oz ; Grouse Artisan Gluten Free Malts (grouseco.com) from the US.

 

[Azzas cider house rules]

Hi Nigel,
Like you, I am also a celiac.
The MJ wet packs are still a favourite especially the gf pale ale. I have been playing around with the ciders and dry hopping and only ever pop in half of the sweetener at the most. The Grants gf home brew recipes (Australian celiac also) has got amazing recipes which are very easy and converted to help make it easy. Check it out. I know the link is long and it takes a bit of time to open but what till you get in you will love it.
http://grantsglutenfreehomebrew.m.webs.com/site/mobile?dm_path=%2Fciders.htm&fw_sig_is_admin=0&fw_sig_permission_level=0&fw_sig_potential_abuse=1&fw_sig_site=58887046&fw_sig_url=http://grantsglutenfreehomebrew.webs.com/&fw_sig_session_key=19b6a7084cf391c7a164da4ef486f2fd3a3ea006b00e6d8de4275ce42d7488d7-58887046&fw_sig_permissions=none&fw_sig_premium=0&fw_sig_access_token=d01575543b199e7a1cab2d38c6b046538a1595ac&fw_sig_time=1495314963581&fw_sig=c37138976ff85831530d8f2152af1e8b&fw_sig_tier=0&fw_sig_social=1&fw_sig_partner=webs&fw_sig_locale=en-US&fw_sig_api_key=522b0eedffc137c934fc7268582d53a1&fb_sig_network=fw#0122

 

[Bribie G]

Aldi apple juice plus a bottle of Bickfords apple cordial makes a good cider.

When using juices, you'll get better results using some yeast nutrient - there's a NZ "wine nutrient" that you can get from most home brew shops.

Also adding malic acid can give a tarter finish as supermarket juices tend to be rather bland.

 

[mr_wibble]

I've made a GF beer with brown rice syrup and dark belgian candi syrup for a family member.
The recipe was way way too bitter, but the underlying flavour was quite toffee-like. I didn't mind that.
Planning another batch soon.

From what I understand, Australian "Gluten-Free" is a lot more stringent than USA GF.
Stuff like clarity-ferm does not reduce the gluten enough for Aus "Gluten-Free" standards.
But if you're only gluten intolerant (or whatever the term is), as opposed to being coceliac, it might be ok.

There's a really good post about it on this forum somewhere