Question about my first gluten free extract brew

[wilson85]

Hi everyone,
Just a quick question about my first gluten free brew. This is my first extract brew also. I have done pretty well what all the videos/info have told me to do. I thought I'd try and be real deadly and put all of my hops in hop sock so I didn't have to strain as much of the hops off. Didn't work too well as most of the hops just came out thought the holes. So I ended up just adding them straight in as most of the videos do.

I ended up doubling up a hop sock, covering a sieve and straining it this way. Worked pretty good.

The brew has been fermenting away for two weeks today. Airlock activity has slowed down to pretty much nothing now. There is a whole heap of hops sitting down at the bottom of the fermenter now, well above the tap level. So now when I try to take a SG reading I end up with a heap of hops in the sample. The brew looks very clear in the fermenter.

I was going to rack it into another fermenter and chash chill it to clear even more. Just didn't want to do it too early. What do you all reckon?

 

[MHB]

Its trub not hops that you are seeing, hops may make up a part of the trub but the bulk of it is yeast and proteinatious material that sorghum syrup throws lots of.
When you boil the wort with hops good brewing practice says you should leave the hops and the hot break in the kettle and not transfer to the fermenter, that would greatly reduce the amount of trub in the bottom of the fermenter.
Be patient GF worts tend to take a little longer to finish
Add a good fining agent, I would use isinglass before crash chilling.
Rack to secondary, but try to leave as much of the trub behind as you can, either tilt the fermenter back and give it a gentle shake to get the trub away from the tap (you might need to put a bit of packing under the front for a couple of days), with that much trub it might be better to syphon the clear wort off the trub layer.
When you are ready to package, again try to avoid getting trub into the bottle/keg
Depending on how long/cold you store the beer it might be well worth reseeding a with a cheap yeast if you are bottling as in my experience GF beers are sometimes very slow to carbonate.
I find these beers improve a lot over a couple of months - so if it isn't to your liking be patient it will improve.
mark

 

[wilson85]

Hi Mark,
Thanks very much for the info and the tips. Will take any advise I can get. Will try and make a Hefeweizen style gluten free brew shortly. See how we go.

For syphoning the beer off, do I just buy a new plastic syphon hose from somewhere, clean and sanitise and I'm right to go?

 

[MHB]

You're welcome
Yes, make sure your syphon is clean and sterile, at a pinch just a piece of 10mm vinyl tube from your local hardware will get you out of trouble.
hope the brewing goes well
Mark