Gluten Free Brewing

[Fraser Kennedy]

Hi guys, I'm really interested to talk with any brewers who have delved into the world of Gluten free homebrewing in NZ. Either for medical reasons or for the interest of creating these somewhat unique beers. In my reaserch so far I've looked into the use of Quinoa, millet and rice malts-however couldn't seem to turn up any of these products in NZ, the closest I could find was AU, but the freight prices alone wouldn't be worth it. Any and all discussions welcome!

[denimglen]

I think Brewer's Coop have some sorghum extract if you wanna go that route.

[Christian]

It's not gluten free (only low gluten) but I'd be keen to try some Spelt in a beer. If it's anything like Spelt bread or pizza base it's gotta be good.

[Fraser Kennedy]

Thanks, I'll give it a try and see how I get on

[David Upex]

Your Shout in Linwood has a maize based kit. I will be putting this down for a friend in the weekend. I am not hoping for too much as the kit has bottle to add called beer flavouring. But we will see.

The kit costs $55.00.

[Fraser Kennedy]

Hmmm, maize may not be the best flavor, but perhaps if I hop it to high heaven it might work. I'll go and have a yarn to Paul, cheers

[Reviled]

Nothing wrong with Maize mate ;o) Allthough maybe not 100% lol

[Colm Carraher]

I've got this kit in bottles at the moment, it recommends leaving it for 8 weeks, but I tasted it after 4 and it was pretty crap. Nicley carbonated but very weak and basically zero flavour. I'll be tasting it again in a week or so.

[Steve Baker]

I pretty much gave up the quest when it looked like I would have to malt my own sorghum. Thats a lot of gear for a bit of an experiment.

There is also these guys, but its a bit pricey.

[Reviled]

"looked like I would have to malt my own sorghum."

Did you ever try and contact Scotts and ask if they would sell you any malted stuff?

edit : or was that someone else??

[Colm Carraher]

I've made a few gluten free brews now. Mostly using the sorghum malt that you can buy from brewers coop. But I have also made some from other un-malted grains adding in enzymes that I got from novozymes.

Using the sorghum malt I've made a really nice lager, a decent IPA, a very nice brown ale, and I have a stout in bottles at the moment - though it's more of a dark brown ale than a nice black stout.

I have a set up to malt and kiln dry grains, but I haven't found the time to give it a go yet.

I'm busy at work right now but will post some recipes and other info tomorrow.

It would be good to get a discussion going on about GF brewing here in NZ.
I'm on the homebrewtalk forum which is really good. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/

[Fraser Kennedy]

That sounds ideal Colm, it would be great to hear more! I've checked out the banter on the forum, and it all looks really helpful aye. Yeah I couldn't find any info here in NZ about the GF brew scene so I got this discussion going, I think I'll try a blonde ale from the sorgum, big fruity, citrusy hops- what do you think?

[Colm Carraher]

The sorghum leaves a tangy kind of citrusy flavouri n the beer anyway so the citrusy hops might make this go overboard. But if thats the flavour you are looking for then go for it. I haven't tried anything like that so it would be good to hear how it turns out.

Here are a couple of recipes I've done.

Honey Lager

2.8 kg Sorghum Malt
0.5Kg Honey (I used pams clover honey)
28g Saaz Hops – Bittering (60min)
15g Saaz Hops – Flavouring (20min)
7g Saaz Hops – Aroma (10min)
7g Saaz Hops – Aroma (end of boil)
(I used Czech saaz hops from Nelson 4.4%AA)
5g Irish Moss


Coffee Stout

2.8 kgs Sorghum Extract
1kg Molasses
25g Nugget (boil 60 mins)
25g Fuggle (boil 10 mins)
250g espresso (seep when water hits 75 degrees and leave in until 15 mins into the boil)
5g Irish Moss
Yeast safale S 04
500g dark roasted Buckwheat and amaranth mix (crushed and roasted 30 mins in oven 450 degrees- steep 20 mins prior to boil and 10 mins into the boil).

This is in bottles at the moment, but tasted really good going in. It's not as dark as I would have liked, will probably roast the grains longer next time.

I have a nice brown ale recipe somewhere that I'll track down and add here as well.