Gluten Free

[Mark Kessell]

hi all,
my brothers just been diagnosed with celiacs disease (i.e. is gluten intollerant).
he's asked me to brew him a gluten free beer. now i can see that it's possible, but wot grains can i use, that are available in NZ, to be able to make him a batch?

appriciate the help here lads.

[Llew Bardecki]

Hey Mark,
Not sure if you're looking for malted grains, or if you're planning to malt your own or to use some other method of starch conversion.

If you're looking for whole un-malted grain there's a wide variety available at Commonsense Organics. I know for sure you can get buckwheat, quinoa and millet, and I'm pretty sure I've seen sorghum there.

I recently did an experient using the amylase in kumara to convert starches for a beer, and it definitely does work. I've also read quite a bit about amylase in raw, unpasteurized honey. If you're interested in using these methods to convert un-malted grains I'd be happy to share what I've learned.

If you're looking for malted gluten-free grains I'm afraid I don't really know. Maybe write to the guys at Scott's and see what they use?

[Mark Kessell]

am after wot is required to brew a gluten free beer.
while searching, i didrun across scotts brew. so i'll check them out.

thanks Llew.

[Llew Bardecki]

Found this page that has a decent overview of what's necessary to brew a gluten-free beer.

It discusses malting your own grains, which isn't strictly necessary IF you can either:

A. Find pre-malted gluten-free grains. (The only thing in NZ I've ever seen that might fit the bill is the Fawcett Oat malt at Liberty Brewing)
or
B. Find some source of enzymes to use in your mash OTHER than malted grains, and just use plain un-malted grain. As I was saying before, adding kumara to your mash will work for this, and from what I've read, raw honey might do the trick as well. I know you can also purchase amylase enzymes and add them directly, but I wouldn't know where to begin looking for them.

If you want to go route B, the amylase in Kumara worked okay for me with a mash temp in the low 60s, with a long slow ramp up to 70C. I'm not 100% clear on how much kumara you should use, but from my reading and one experiment I'd guess that about 1/4 to 1/2 of the starch/sugar in your beer should come from Kumara.
From what I've read the amylase in honey is happiest working at around 55C. No idea how much honey you'd have to use though.

No matter which route you take, it'll be an learning process, and I reckon it'll take a few batches to get it just right. I'd love to hear all about it though (as, I'm sure would others around here.)

[Pilgrim]

Mike at Brewer's Coop http://www.brewerscoop.co.nz/ had some Gluten free beer kits at Beervana. Not cheap but a lot cheaper than buying commercial Gluten free beer (if you can find it).

[Chris Mills]

I am in the process or ordering in some Briess White Sorghum syrup and would be happy to sell some of it to those that are interested. Easiest if you are in Wellington, but I would consider shipping it.

[Chris Mills]

My shipment of Briess White Sorghum syrup was delivered this morning. Send a PM if you'd like to purchase some from me.