Wheat substitutes

[Bonenose]

Hi everyone,

Have a good friend who is quite a keen beer drinker but reacts rather badly to wheat. Have spent a lot of time looking for wheat free recipes and have just realised maybe I am looking at this wrong and should be looking at wheat substitutes. Would not try to be making wheat beers of course but what can I use as a substitute for recipes with smaller percentages of wheat?

Cheers

 

[MHB]

When you see a small (usually 5-10%) Wheat addition it is usually there to help with head retention in the finished beer. Just replace it with base malt or a similar amount of CaraFoam/CaraPillis, used for the same reasons as wheat, to get head improvements.
A well made all malt beer shouldn't have any issues with head, so not really a problem subbing the wheat.
Mark

 

[Jack of all biers]

Rye is a great sub for wheat. It adds a spiciness to the brew somewhat different from wheat. I otherwise agree with MHB above.

EDIT - If your friend reacts badly to wheat because of its gluten content then barley will be no good for them either. Just saying, cause I've never heard of wheat intolerance by itself (lots I don't know)

 

[Bonenose]

EDIT - If your friend reacts badly to wheat because of its gluten content then barley will be no good for them either. Just saying, cause I've never heard of wheat intolerance by itself (lots I don't know)

Yeah bit strange she normally says she is gluten intolerant because people understand that especially when ordering food etc. but it is wheat that is the problem there are a few other things but they have nothing to do with beer.

Anyway got something to work with so cheers guys

 

[Headmeister]

The CSIRO have isolated a gluten free barley, after years of breeding and isolating lower and lower gluten strains over and over, now the product is becoming very popular in Europe for making gluten free beer there. It van't be called that in Aus as it doesn't quite pass our more stringent 20ppm cutoff.

If the is the problem is gluten then sourcing and trying this grain may be worth a shot. Have no idea how you'd get some though.

Not that its really on topic, but I have had great success brewing with fine burghul wheat for wheatbeers and witbiers calling for unmalted wheat. This is the stuff you see in tabbouleh salad. It's pre-gelatinised just like rolled wheat so goes straight into the mash if fine grade. If courser you can put it through the mill. It sells for as little as $2/kg, a lot cheaper than rolled wheat, easy to source and performs really well. I got the highest score for a Belgian wit in the 2016 NSW comp using 40% burghul wheat at $2/kg!

 

[klangers]

Try clarityferm, which is a drying enzyme from whitelabs. When used correctly it allegedly breaks down >99% of gluten.