Gluten Free Sorghum Ale

[Common]

Here is my Gluten Free Sorghum Ale recipe. Normally I wouldn't post a recipe unless I have brewed it multiple times and perfected it, however, due to the lack of Gluten Free recipes and this turning out well, I decided to post it. It turned out pretty good actually. Different, but pretty good. This is the only extract brew I have ever done, because I didn't feel like buying more GF grains and malting them myself.

I got the GF grains from: Bob's Red Mill*::*Gluten Free*::*Gluten Free Grains, Beans, and Seeds (http://www.bobsredmill.com/home.php?cat=127)

I got the Sorghum Syrup at Midwest (They also have a 6lb): Briess White Sorghum Syrup, 3.3 lbs. :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3794)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Type: Extract + Steeping Grains
Batch Size: 2.75 gal
Boil Size: 3.78 gal
Yeast Starter: Just Rehydrate yeast 30+ min prior with boiled water cooled to room temp.
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.015
ABV: 4.69%
Estimated Color: 18.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 63.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Primary: 28 days @ 65*F

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU

3.30 lb Briess White Sorghum Syrup (3.0 SRM) Extract 62.26 %
1.00 lb Roasted Amaranth (25.0 SRM) Grain 18.87 %
1.00 lb Roasted Buckwheat (75.0 SRM) Grain 18.87 %

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See quote below for better hop schedules
******************************
0.50 oz Warrior [15.40 %] (40 min) Hops 41.6 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [11.90 %] (20 min) Hops 22.2 IBU

1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
(Note: You must use SafAle because they are one of the only 100% Gluten Free yeasts).

Notes:
--------
If you brew this for someone very allergic to Gluten, please sanitize the **** out of your equipment - ALL of it. Go overboard. There are some people that cannot come in contact with gluten, and it can stay in your brewing equipment.

The colors are estimates, however they are pretty accurate. If I were to do it again I would probably choose a different hop schedule. This one works though. If you brew this feel free to experiment with the hops and post up how it turns out.


Roasting Instructions:
-----------------------
NOTE: This will make your house smell like ass for like a day or 2. Spread out grains on cookie sheets covered with aluminum foil (preferably the ones with sides). I wanted didn't have time to do them separately so I roasted them at the same time. I put the Buckwheat on a lower shelf and the Amaranth above it. Pre-heat the oven to 175*F, then put the grains in. Increase by 25*F every 30 minutes. At 375* the Buckwheat was real dark, almost black, and the Amaranth was like medium roasted. I increased it to 400*F for a bit which made the Buckwheat black, but not overly charred, and the Amaranth about medium-dark.

Here are my grains:
http://www.surrealstudio.net/Beer/gfgrains.jpg

Steeping:
------------------------
I was not aware that the Amaranth grains were so small. They fell right through my fine nylon mesh bags. So I crushed everything best I could, and steeped the grains in another pot, and then combined everything in the boil pot.


There is no head on this beer, but it is pretty normal with these GF beers. Yea I know it's cloudy. You can try to clarify it by whatever means, but I just didn't bother.

http://www.surrealstudio.net/Beer/GFglass.jpg


I took the case of it to my sister this weekend and she loved it. She said it was waaay better than any of the commercial GF beers she had. She said those were pretty bland without much flavor, and that mine actually had flavor to it.


**********************************************
If I were to do this again I would go with a hop schedule like these
**********************************************

I did this last night - two separate 3 gal batches (see below). Thanks again for the recipe. I added 5 oz of brown rice syrup to the base recipe.

It tasted good & hoppy, but my SRM only got to 5 [pale yellow]. I would have preferred the OP's ~18-20 SRM. jealous!

Here is my yeast/hop schedules:

English E.S.B. (Batch #1)
yeast, S-04;
Use time oz variety form aa
Boil 60 mins 0.5 Magnum leaf 15.4
Boil 60 mins 0.25 Galena plug 13.0
Boil 20 mins 0.25 Tettnanger pellet 5.1
Boil 10 mins 0.25 Fuggles leaf 4.7
Boil 1 min 0.25 Goldings, EK leaf 5.0
Dryhop 7 days 0.5 Goldings, EK leaf 5.0
+ irish mosh@15 & gyp@60

WestCoast IPA (Batch #2)
yeast, S-05;
Use time oz variety form aa
Boil 60 mins 0.5 Centennial pellet 8.4
Boil 60 min 0.25 Centennial (but I was short and had to sub Chinook)
Boil 15 mins 0.5 Centennial (used Chinook)
Boil 10 mins 0.5 Cascade pellet 5.5
Dryhop 7 days 0.5 Cascade pellet 5.5
+ irish mosh & gyp

[DrunkenSatyr]

Nice! Glad to see we have a Gluten Free Beer recipe on the board!

[PhotoSHO]

Wow, this is awesome and I will try it this weekend. One question, once you roasted your grains (for a total of 8 hours?) do you brew immediately or store them for a set amount of time?

[Common]

I roasted them for a few hours. Just keep an eye on it. I was kind of in a hurry to get them done because I had to brew that night. You don't have to brew immediately after. If you want to wait just stick them in some plastic bags or something.

Someone tried a different hop schedule which I encourage and said it came out great. I would honestly go with the different hop schedule than mine. It was stil great, but could be better. Here is what they said:


I did this last night - two separate 3 gal batches (see below). Thanks again for the recipe. I added 5 oz of brown rice syrup to the base recipe.

It tasted good & hoppy, but my SRM only got to 5 [pale yellow]. I would have preferred the OP's ~18-20 SRM. jealous!

Here is my yeast/hop schedules:

English E.S.B. (Batch #1)
yeast, S-04;
Use time oz variety form aa
Boil 60 mins 0.5 Magnum leaf 15.4
Boil 60 mins 0.25 Galena plug 13.0
Boil 20 mins 0.25 Tettnanger pellet 5.1
Boil 10 mins 0.25 Fuggles leaf 4.7
Boil 1 min 0.25 Goldings, EK leaf 5.0
Dryhop 7 days 0.5 Goldings, EK leaf 5.0
+ irish mosh@15 & gyp@60

WestCoast IPA (Batch #2)
yeast, S-05;
Use time oz variety form aa
Boil 60 mins 0.5 Centennial pellet 8.4
Boil 60 min 0.25 Centennial (but I was short and had to sub Chinook)
Boil 15 mins 0.5 Centennial (used Chinook)
Boil 10 mins 0.5 Cascade pellet 5.5
Dryhop 7 days 0.5 Cascade pellet 5.5
+ irish mosh & gyp

[blacklab]

Cool. Just bought the sorghum syrup and will brew a version of this with Cascades, and scale it up to a full 5 gallon boil.

[Common]

Awesome. Let me know how it turns out. I would definitely do one of those other hop schedules, or one of your own. Mine was mainly bitterness, could have used more hop flavor. It was my first shot at a recipe.

[Common]

My sister still had some left over since she rarely drinks beer, and we had a family thing today that I brought a keg of Irish Red to and she brought a few of the GF beers I had made and I tasted it again months later and my tasting notes still stand. It's so different it's hard to explain, but it's good. I was pleasantly surprised. Since I first tasted it I've had so much more good beer, but this is still great.

Hey blacklab, I'm pretty sure she has a couple left and I could send you one if you want, so you can compare. Let me know.

[blacklab]

Hey Daniel, thanks for the offer, I appreciate it. I don't you to have to go to the trouble of sending them. I've got some sorghum syrup on the way from NB and am going to toast 2 lbs GF oats to try and give it some more body and a nutty flavor. Commercially, I've been drinking Bard's, which is not bad.

You're right it, is different stuff, not in a bad way, just different. I'm also getting into ciders, which are luckily also GF.

[blacklab]

I had a bottle of this thanks to the Tourbox. This recipe compares favorably with Bards, which IMHO is the best of the typically commercially available GF beers. Nice work, O'D.

[Common]

Thanks. I think it's gone downhill, granted its over a year old by now. Something about it was off. I had one in a few weeks ago. It was still great last fall though. Wish you could have tasted it then. Thanks for the kind words though.